Forevermore
by Merianon
Summary: In which… Gabriel and Lucifer are back together as brothers but encounter some issues; Sam is pretty understanding, and so is Castiel; Dean is so done with everyone's crap; Mary just wants her family to be happy; and minor OCs galore. A Sequel to Be My Guest – You might want to read that first.
1. The One Who Had It All

**Precursor Note: I doubt you would be here if you haven't already read _Be My Guest_ , but just in case, this is a sequel to that story. You will be lost if you haven't read _BMG_ yet. Moving on, here's the story you've all been waiting for! **

* * *

**But first a disclaimer: Really, the same stuff from _Be My Guest_ applies here… I don't own _Supernatural_ or its characters, and the story title as well as the chapters titles are based on stuff from Disney's latest _Beauty and the Beast_. (Edit: Later, there's also some sections that involve the game series _Borderlands_ , a snippet about some of the recent MCU movies, at one point or two they do a _Star Wars_ marathon, et cetera, et cetera, you get the gist. Lucifer also reads books in his spare time, so you'll be seeing some relatively known titles.)**

* * *

 **Prologue**

 **The One Who Had It All**

 _Tuesday, November 7, 2017…_

"Daddammit!"

Lucifer's blue eyes slowly looked up from the book ( _Journey to the Center of the Earth_ by Jules Verne) the archangel had been reading. What on Earth had caused Gabriel to suddenly shout the curse? Sure, Lucifer supposed it could have been a number of things – all centering around his little brother's trickster nature.

The older archangel was actually surprised that Sam still hadn't gotten payback on Gabriel for turning his hair bright pink (and curling and putting glitter and ribbons in said hair). Though, it wouldn't have surprised him if the string of profanities now leaving Gabriel's mouth following the earlier curse was because the younger human's ingenuity. On the other hand, Mary had mentioned something about no prank wars, so it couldn't have been Sam finally getting justice for his hair. Besides, Gabriel had turned Sam's hair back to normal once Lucifer had gotten to see what the mischievous archangel had done to it.

Dean walked into the library a moment after the end of that thought. He had a mildly ticked off expression on his face. "What the hell is Gabriel going on about?"

"Do I look like I keep track of every single thing my little brother does?" Lucifer replied , rolling his eyes over to the human. Setting the book down on the table, he sighed at the dubious look Dean gave him. "I really have no idea— it could have been anything."

"I take it neither of you know why Gabriel's cursing up a storm," Sam muttered, entering the library from the same hallway Dean had come in through. The younger Winchester still looked half-asleep, which was understandable since it was barely five in the morning.

Lucifer let out an inward huff. To think that only four months ago he and Gabriel had decided to stay and take residence in the Bunker. And seven months before that, Lucifer had taken Gabriel Bennett as a vessel. Both were major – undoubtedly life-changing – moments in the more recent years of their millions of years of existence (well, that number was relative since time was a human perception and didn't exist until after the whole Garden incident).

The archangel found it somewhat amusing that those eleven months ago, he would have never imagined being here. Here, where he wasn't _alone_. Here, where he had a _family_. Here, where he was truly _happy_.

" _Shit— They're gonna kill me…_ " Gabriel's thoughts broke through into Lucifer's mind.

Ever since the two had reconciled, the bond – originating in the brothers' time together before Creation, broken during Lucifer's fall, and reinitiated through Gabriel's indirect reincarnation – had grown ten fold. They didn't have to be sharing a body to hear the other's thoughts. The connection was still (and always had been) there.

Lucifer took a moment to debate with himself on whether or not Gabriel was being literal before pushing a curious yet concerned thought of his own back to Gabriel. The response was sheepish, if not hesitant. That just made Lucifer all the more curious. Still, the answer he'd gotten warranted immediate attention.

"Excuse me," he told the human brothers and then flew off to his brother's location in the kitchen.

 _Oh…_ was Lucifer's only thought as he stared at the sight before him. To say that he hadn't been expecting… _this_ was an understatement. He knew about a couple of the nervous habits Gabriel had picked up over the course of his stay on Earth as an archangel in hiding as well as the time he'd spent as a human.

Sweet tooth was the first that came to mind, though the nervous habit aspect came from Gabriel Bennett. The younger archangel also had a tendency to go about organizing things (Lucifer wasn't sure where that one came from). Another – Gabriel's sass, sarcastic and witty or even caustic comebacks at certain times – was more of defense mechanism that the archangel had always had, but it had become more pronounced with his time on Earth.

This was new.

A wide range of desserts were spread across a table that Lucifer was certain wasn't originally in the Bunker's kitchen. The assortment went from cakes and pies to plates of cookies to bowls of ice cream sundaes to all sorts of other pastries. But all of that wasn't what Gabriel was freaking out over.

No, the youngest archangel was starting to pull out his golden hair because of the supplies in the pantry – well, lack thereof. Gabriel had used quite literally everything he could in making all of the desserts. But Lucifer was pretty sure that the Winchesters would be more concerned with vast amount of food now littering the long table in front of him rather than the bare cupboards.

"What's with the buffet of sweets?" the older archangel asked once he'd regained some of his wits about him.

Gabriel whirled around, not having taken notice of his brother's arrival. "I— uh… I was… stress baking..?"

"Stress baking?" Lucifer repeated. The two words fell from his mouth, each expressing every bit of incredulousness he was feeling. "Why?"

"Uh…" Gabriel sort of started, glancing over the mass amounts of pastries that where laid out on the table which split the room into two sides – Lucifer on one side, Gabriel on the other. "Well…"

" _Gabriel,_ " Lucifer said warningly.

"Woah."

Lucifer huffed, not even bothering to spare a glance at the oldest hunter currently in the Bunker (Dean, obviously – because Mary was out on a small hunt with Castiel). The human had clearly followed the commotion Gabriel had caused and wound up here. And of course the first thing that Dean would notice was the food.

"Try the pie," Gabriel suggested enthusiastically, waving a hand in the direction of the cluster of said treats. "It's delicious."

"Oh, hell yeah! You made pie!"

Lucifer now noticed that there was more than just sweets in the mix (though the majority was definitely confections). Shepard's pie and pot pie as well as bacon and eggs pie could be seen sitting about with the fruit and sugar based pies. He was pretty sure he saw some panzerotti and empanadas next to the cannoli and éclair trays.

Gabriel let out a half-amused, half-nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his head. "I may have gone a bit overboard, but you're welcome to all of it. I'll make sure none of it goes bad. Sam, you can start out with the fig rolls if you want to stick with your rabbit diet."

"No, no…" Sam breathed, eyes wide as he stared at all of the food laid out on the table. "I don't mind trying a bit of everything."

"There's a good sport!" Gabriel exclaimed. He beamed a dazzling smile at the two, ready to take any and all compliments he was about to receive once the humans started trying the multitude of dishes.

" _I still want to know why you were stress baking, Gabriel,_ " Lucifer told his little brother over their bond.

Gabriel's smile faltered a bit at that. Amber eyes hesitantly shifted over to meet blue. "Dig in! Enjoy! Now, if you'll just excuse me," Gabriel said hurriedly as he flew off to a private room.

Lucifer quickly followed him, and soon enough, they were alone. "Will you tell me now?" he asked, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

"It's not that big of a deal—"

"I think it's a great big deal if you're going to try and lie to me about it," Lucifer cut in.

It didn't happen often – like _at all_ – but the subtle change from amber to brown never ceased to both awe and scare Lucifer. The two (three, really – archangel, trickster and human) halves were usually so overlapping in personality and motivation that the human portion never needed to come forward, but it would inevitably happen every once in a while. The older archangel knew it wasn't exactly good for Gabriel to let the human part of him out for long periods of time.

"It's Lucilia's birthday," Gabriel answered quietly, in a shy fashion not of the archangel's personality.

If the change in eye color hadn't already told Lucifer that Gabriel the archangel wasn't in front, then the change in demeanor would have. As would the statement. While Gabriel might have been Lucifer's world, Lucilia was Gabriel Bennett's. It now occurred to Lucifer that Gabriel's anxiety was likely stemming from the fact that the boy couldn't be there for his little sister's ninth birthday. Which also meant that the day Charles had left had been sometime during the past week.

It was a bit difficult, sometimes, when working with Gabriel. Definitely different. He was… more _open_ to the wide array of human emotions – like the anxiety. And, while not constantly, Gabriel did often let his heart rule over his thoughts. Some of his actions would be led by whimsical feelings before he thought about what he was doing.

To say the least, this wasn't very good considering Gabriel was an archangel. Now, it wasn't particularly bad either, but while it did make things interesting, Lucifer sometimes had to clean up Gabriel's messes. Not that Lucifer would call them that. No, he thought about it more as simply keeping an eye on his little brother – even if Lucifer found Gabriel looking out for him in turn.

"You know, we never did get around to seeing this Disney World, and who knows… Maybe we'll see a girl and her mother who've coincidentally gotten an all-expenses-paid-for vacation there too while we're visiting," Lucifer said, hoping that his implication made itself clear without him having to actually explain—

"You would do that?" Gabriel asked excitedly, chocolate brown eyes lighting up with a happiness Lucifer strived to keep there.

"Anything for you, little brother."

 **~o-O-o~**

 _Sometime in August, three months earlier…_

"I'm serious, guys! Thor's cool with me," Gabriel insisted. "And it was between him and Dionysus. Mead or wine…"

"And you're sure that this'll even the odds?"

Gabriel gave an innocent-ish shrug. "The Æsir know how to party. I've gotten drunk on this stuff one or twice… maybe more."

"Right! Drinking contest is a go!" Dean exclaimed.

Mary hid a small smile as Sam groaned. Castiel was looking rather dubious about the whole thing. Lucifer wasn't sure what to think.

This all started when he let it slip that he'd never actually tried any form of human alcohol before, and then Dean insisted on hosting the moment when the archangel finally got to be drunk, which Lucifer wasn't really looking forward to. But Lucifer did relent to the proposal of the drinking contest when Gabriel hopped onto the bandwagon.

The main safety rule was that the humans didn't touch the Norse-pagan-god-enhanced mead. Contest-wise, the last one standing (and was able to take a picture of the other wasted contesters) would get to lord over the rest of them the day after everyone got sober again and the hangovers were gone.

In the end, Lucifer decided he hated alcohol, and it turned out that Mary could hold her liquor really, really well.

~o-O-o~

 _Early September…_

"Is it really a good idea to move her somewhere so isolated?"

"It's the middle of nowhere. No one will find them."

"But no one will be there to help them if they get in trouble."

"Fine, then where to we put them?"

"Why not with their extended family?"

"That's too obvious."

"Exactly. They'll be hidden in plain sight."

"I guess it's fine then," Gabriel relented.

Lucifer gave his brother a confident smile. "Good. I'll set things in motion."

~o-O-o~

 _Later in September…_

Dean strolled down the corridor, headed for the library as he'd already stopped by the kitchen for his morning coffee. Sam hadn't found a case in a while, and Dean was considering just taking Sam, Cas and maybe Mary out on a short road trip ( _maybe_ for Mary, assuming that the archangels would go out somewhere too because Dean was not leaving them alone in the Bunker without supervision).

The older Winchester brother jumped, startling as song lyrics burst out over nonexistent speakers that weren't installed in the hallways. It took him about two seconds to reorient himself, and once he did, Dean realized that it was a Disney song… It was something from _Aladdin_ … maybe. Dean would never admit to recognizing it as "Friend Like Me".

" _Gabriel!_ " he roared. "It's too damn early in the morning for your shit!"

~o-O-o~

 _Middle of October…_

Lucifer glanced away from the excessively large TV screen down to the vibrating cellphone and saw that it was Sam calling. Gabriel, who was still engrossed in the current movie of the _Star Wars_ marathon they were watching with Castiel and Mary, barely gave him any notice as Lucifer got up to take the call. Once he was out in the hallway, he accepted the call.

"What in the world do you still need help with? Castiel already gave you the breakthrough that you're dealing with a _kelpie_ ," Lucifer spoke softly into the phone's microphone.

" _The silver bullets didn't work,_ " came Sam's quick response over the speaker. The Winchester sounded like he was running and out of breath.

Lucifer hummed, acknowledging that the call was perfectly reasonable then. "I don't suppose you have two iron spears and a fire around you by any chance…"

" _What?_ " Sam panted. He must have stopped; Lucifer didn't hear any wind rushing past or the crunching of leaves underfoot in the background.

"You could try ramming two iron spears that have been heated in a fire into its sides," he clarified.

There was a pause, and Dean's muffled and distant voice could be heard. " _Does it have to be a spear? Can it be any iron weapon?_ " Sam asked.

"As long as it's sharp and pointy," Lucifer wittily replied.

" _'kay, we'll call you guys when we're done._ "

"Have fun," Lucifer said right before he hung up on Sam. Then he quietly walked back into the room and sat down to continue watching _Rouge One: A Star Wars Story_.

~o-O-o~

 _Halloween…_

"We're not going trick-or-treating, Gabriel."

"But why not?" the archangel whined, looking very close to stamping his foot on the ground in a bout of childish anger.

"Because—"

"Just take him out to one of neighborhoods on the west side of town, Sam," Lucifer called from the other side of the room.

The human shot the other archangel of the Bunker a glare and then rolled his eyes when Lucifer ignored him. "Why do you even need to go trick-or-treating? You're an archangel. You can just snap up candy whenever you want."

"It's not the same," Gabriel started to protest.

"I assume you'll at least go looking like a kid."

Gabriel rolled his eyes at Sam. "Well, duh. But that's also why I kinda need an escort."

"Then why are you asking me? Can't you take Mary or Lucifer?" Sam huffed.

"Mary's going out somewhere with Dean and Cas, and as much as Luci _loves_ humans now, you really think he'd enjoy Halloween of all supernatural days?"

Sam sighed. Gabriel had a point. "Fine," he acquiesced. "But I get to wear whatever the hell I want to wear, and we're going to be back in the Bunker before midnight."

The bright smile on Gabriel's face better be worth it, Sam thought to himself. The next morning, he would be tired, but he would also have a gallon-bag full of assorted candy beside his bed when he woke up. And if Gabriel told anyone that Sam did in fact dress up, Sam would firmly deny it.

~o-O-o~

 _Saturday, November 11, 2017…_

Lucifer and Gabriel had told Sam, Dean, Castiel and Mary that going to Disney World was a much needed vacation and that they should all enjoy the freedom that the weekend trip offered. Though a touch surprised by this turn of events, the humans had agreed to it without complaint since they currently had nothing else on their plate while Cas gave the two archangels a look before also agreeing to go.

And that was how Team Free Will, Mary Winchester, Gabriel and Lucifer all ended up at the Magic Kingdom park on a Saturday morning.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm holding onto the first actual chapter for a little longer (but I will put it out soon, don't worry) because of some plot stuff. You know, I really wasn't planning on putting this out so soon (it's only the middle-end of May)... and then school ended. Okay, well, I got out of school early because of my exceptional grades and virtually nonexistent absences (not anymore, lol), and I didn't have anything to do except for fanfiction stuff. Anyways, it's great to be back people!**

 **(Also, I can already tell you, what's going to happen won't be as crazy or messed up as that season 12 finale, not to mention the season 13 one... Well, I'll try anyway.)**

 **Now, if you'll just excuse me as I go on a 7 days+ vacation down to Florida. I promise I'll be back.**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

 **Post-S13 Note: I know there was that whole episode on Loki, and I was kind of mad at the writers because they messed up Norse mythology, so I'm ignoring that part of canon. I'm already super AU. Just an FYI.**


	2. Master of Fate

**Chapter 1**

 **Master of Fate**

To be fair, it never should have happened. Not that they knew the truth about it. _They_ being the Winchesters and Company, and _it_ being the thing that happened. But it hasn't happened yet. It won't happen until they're at each other's throats and can't seem to be able to trust one another.

And it all started on that beautiful fall day. It was perfectly reasonable to not suspect a thing – after all, why would one expect of such when in Disney World? The angels and humans had more or less split up for their own bouts of 'family time'. Dean had practically dragged Sam and Mary over to Splash Mountain while Gabriel took Lucifer and Castiel to the actual castle in the middle of the park.

"Come on, Cassie! At least _look_ like you're excited by all of this," Gabriel exclaimed as he guided them upwards to the top of the castle. "It's every kid's dream to come here!"

"I suppose it is rather nice place. However, I don't understand why they call this the Magic Kingdom when there isn't any magic," Castiel responded in typical Castiel fashion.

"I'm having a bit of trouble understanding that, too," Lucifer muttered under his breath.

Gabriel just shot a halfhearted glare at both of them before stopping in front of the open balcony. Rushing towards the balustrade railing, the youngest archangel gestured out to all of the people milling about below. "Can't you feel the children's joy— the way their souls all shine brighter here from the sheer excitement— how the parents' souls resonate with their children's happiness? The whole place is like a beacon of love and hope and a bunch of other cheesy but happy emotions!"

"I can feel it, little brother, but that doesn't mean I understand it," Lucifer responded dryly, crossing his arms as he stood next to the left of his brother.

The youngest archangel shot a pleading glance to the other angel present. Surely Castiel would have _some_ insight to what he was saying… But, no, Castiel only gazed at the crowds of people in the park. Gabriel's list of convincing reasons for Disney World being awesome took a blow, and he faltered slightly. Still, that didn't keep him from continuing his effort.

"Look," he started with an edge of exasperation in his voice. "Right over there under that stuff from Tangled— you know, the lanterns and purple flags? Yeah, there. See the little girl with her mom?"

Lucifer turned his gaze to where Gabriel was directing him. The older archangel found the little girl Gabriel mentioned before his brother was even finished with his question. Lucifer also instantly recognized the little girl. After all, Lucilia Bennett was technically the reason why he and Gabriel had been so adamant that they all go to Disney World in the first place.

"—time of her life… Are you even listening to a word I'm saying?" Gabriel huffed, crossing his arms when he noticed that Lucifer was zoning out on him.

Lucifer blinked, shooting a glance over at Gabriel. "Of course, why wouldn't I be?" he asked innocently, if perhaps a touch _too_ innocently.

Gabriel glared at his older brother and then continued with his exposition.

Lucifer paid attention – really, he did. But he was also focused on the girl, who was entirely oblivious to the archangel watching her.

Lucilia had changed since he'd last seen her personally. Sure, Lucifer had been involved with moving Gabriel Bennett's little sister and mother to their relatives' home, but he hadn't actually been there for the transition. From what he could see, she was doing well. Her soul – along with many of the others here – was indeed bright, and hers stood out from the rest.

But that might have been because of his time looking at her through Gabriel Bennett's eyes. The boy held his little sister in such a high regard that Lucifer found it hard to not place her in a similar light – especially now that Gabriel was _Gabriel_. The boy had captured Lucifer's heart, and the youngest archangel helped it grow.

While Lucifer still couldn't care less for the human race, he was finding that some weren't _as bad_ as he had taken them to be. It probably didn't help that Gabriel had pretty much spoiled him with some of their inventions like the Internet and TV and ice cream and chocolate.

Still, there were all kinds of reasons Lucifer could come up with to hate on the humans... But nowadays, he just didn't bother to come up with those reasons. And he _was_ trying to be a bit optimistic and give the human race the benefit of the doubt for Gabriel's sake.

" _Stop staring. You'll make Cassie suspicious,_ " Gabriel's voice boomed in his head.

It was small, minuscule – only a slight tensing of his form – but Lucifer jumped at the interruption of his thoughts. He sent a subtle glare Gabriel's way, and he got a 'you deserved that' smirk in return.

"And that's why the Magic Kingdom is magical," Gabriel said aloud in conclusion to what Lucifer could only assume was a long and detailed elaboration on his original statement.

Castiel was about to respond, probably something in refutation of one of Gabriel's points, when both Lucifer and Gabriel's attention snapped over to the entrance area of the park – Main Street, USA.

A disturbance had rippled across several planes of existence.

Suddenly, several people – adults and children alike – dropped dead. And then faded into nothing, their life force signatures... their _souls_ being erased from existence. The rest of the humans just continued to mill about as if nothing had happened.

"What the—" was all Gabriel sputtered before another, much larger ripple tore across the whole park.

Hundreds of people disappeared, gone in a haze of smoke.

The three celestials stared in horror at the sudden loss of life— no, Creation.

Castiel's phone rang a few tense moments later. It was Dean. The older Winchester brother wanted to know what was with the random smoke cloud that had passed over the park. Castiel could only reply that he didn't know and then hung up.

"Gabriel..." Castiel started in a low voice. His phone was forgotten, resting passively in his right hand. "What just happened?"

The youngest archangel's mouth opened to answer but nothing came out. The shock Gabriel was experiencing was clear to see in his amber eyes. Those eyes widened in horror as he turned, spinning towards the section of the park he'd had Lucifer look at not five minutes before. His hands gripped the railing, knuckles white like the material of the railing itself.

A sob was ripped from his lips. "No," he gasped. With his head bowed, a tear dropped from his cheek onto the railing, another and another following soon after as he curled in on himself. "No! No, no nono— S-she's gone... _Dammit_!"

Gabriel's grief rapidly transformed from sorrow to rage. "Where's that bitch?!" he practically roared, eyes flashing a dangerous molten gold.

And then it clicked for Castiel. _Fate._ The people not just dying but being wiped from the face of the Earth... Castiel had seen it before – with Atropos. But this didn't feel like Atropos. Could it have been–?

A massive ripple that shook even the physical plane ripped through all of existence. Gabriel swayed once before suddenly collapsing. Lucifer – whose eyes hadn't been taken off of Gabriel ever since the younger archangel had moved to the railing – caught Gabriel before his head hit the railing. Lucifer frowned as the edges of Gabriel's form started to blur.

"Lucifer, it's the Fates," Castiel said hurriedly. "Something must have happened, and they're setting everything back to what they've determined is as it should be."

"But nothing has changed," Lucifer refuted. "Gabriel and I would have felt any sort of disturbance in the time continuum."

"They think otherwise."

"Watch over him."

Castiel didn't have to be told that, but Lucifer gave the command anyway. It was both an outlet of Lucifer's protectiveness over Gabriel and a sign of Lucifer's trust in Castiel. And while Castiel felt some amount of pride in having that trust, now was not the time to be celebrating the gain – especially when they were both so close to a loss.

 **~o-O-o~**

Lucifer found her sitting at a spinning wheel in a small cottage within the park. It hadn't taken him long to trace her work back to here. He hadn't risked taking his time. Not when Gabriel's life was on the line.

"Lucifer," she greeted him as if saying hello to a young child.

"Clotho," he returned, not bothering to keep the malice out of his tone.

The Moirae continued to spin the wheel, creating thread from the wool in a basket off to the side. Her posture betrayed nothing of what she felt nor of her role in what had occurred outside. To a human, she would just look like some old woman spinning thread, but Lucifer could see the fabric of the universe being drawn into that thread.

"I see that you're here about those outside… Particularly your brother, no?"

Lucifer didn't let her astute observation faze him. Clotho was one of the Fates. Her knowing things was typical of her type. "Change it back."

A flicker of a smile passed across her face. "So demanding for one who knows the rules."

"Those rules were broken when they were made. Free Will is the style these days. Now. Change. It. Back."

"No can do, Lucifer," said a new voice.

Blue eyes flicked over to the owner to see that it was Lachesis. "Why not?"

"Because the world has strayed off the path long enough," she answered.

"There is no path," Lucifer spat. "That was made perfectly clear when God left with His sister to all points nowhere for a vacation."

But Clotho was already shaking her head. "There is still a path that we all follow. Distorted it has become over the years, yes, but it is there. And you have fallen off of it for some time now."

"Didn't I just say that free will—"

Lachesis held up her free hand (the other holding a clipboard), cutting him off. "We have considered both the will of your father and the discrepancies of free will. In any event, where you stand now is nowhere near where you should be. Another example would be Gabriel. His current existence defies the natural order."

"And you're 'fixing' this all _now_?" Lucifer seethed. "Perfect timing."

"Your opinion is noted, Morning Star," Clotho said coldly.

Lucifer's eye twitched at the dismissal. "I'm not leaving until I know Gabriel will still be there, alive and perfectly well, when I get back to Castiel."

The two Fates looked at each other. Obviously they weren't keen on sparing Gabriel from the 'corrections' they were making.

"You said I was off the path… What if I got back on?" Lucifer tried. "Would you leave everyone else alone? Would you put them back?"

"That's not how it works—"

"Don't give me that, you old hags," Lucifer snarled, cutting Lachesis off. "Fix them, or I'll go back to just before you starting changing things and smite you both."

"Temper, temper," Clotho chuckled, her hands on the spinning wheel pausing as she turned her gaze on him.

"Only your father can threaten us," Lachesis tsked, waving a finger at him.

Lucifer very tempted to snap that finger in half. This was just another reason to hate that destiny crap. He couldn't kill the Fates off without… consequences – not necessarily on the universe ending scale but certainly on the cosmic one. Still, these two were pissing him off.

"Daddy's gone," he growled, a feral smirk crossing his face. "That puts me at the top of the food chain."

That got a reaction: a tensing of frame. So they were scared of him. Good. One would have to be either crazy or stupid to not fear the wrath of an archangel.

"Well, ladies? Do I have to follow through on that… _threat_?" He put emphasis on the word to let them know that he was fully intending to go further than just smite them if they didn't agree.

He never got an answer.

Lucifer was blasted off of his feet and rendered unconscious, the world going black.

 **~o-O-o~**

Urd glanced over to where her sisters were usually weaving the threads of fate into their loom. Verdandi and Skuld had gone out to... deal with the dramatic changes and would be returning soon. Urd had made sure that everything had been put back to the way it had been before those Greek hypocrites messed with things. Seriously, those idiots thought it would be okay to pull an immediate reset. No subtly whatsoever.

That's what would put you on the radar. That's what would get you caught. That's what would get you killed.

Silly Greco-Roman deities. They thought because they were so well-known around the world that they could get away with more than the other pantheons. As if!

But still, while most of the pagan societies had (by now) acknowledged the superior status of the Creator and His immediate children, there were those that had yet to get over their superiority complexes and admit that the archangels really could wipe them all out with a simple snap of their fingers.

Those fools who still thought themselves above the archangels would learn eventually, and the others didn't brother to correct them – that was mainly because those fools were also the ones who usually pissed the others off the most.

Not that such matters weren't important, but they were part of a digression. Now, back to the matter at hand…

Urd looked back down to the thread in her hands. She twirled it a little, watching the sparks of Creation connected to the string shimmer and twinkle with Power. No one appreciated the work that the Fates – _all_ of them – put into weaving the fabric of universe, into providing a Path for all of those who lived. Well, there was one who had truly thanked the Norns a couple times during his stay in the Norse pantheon.

Urd chuckled at the memory of him. Loki had always been odd for a god, and not always for his own good. The archangel had gone to them first and told Urd and her sisters his story. Understanding the archangel's need to get away from his fighting brothers, to get away from his past, to be something other than what he was expected to be, the Norns agreed to help him.

They showed him how make his own vessel, gave him another name and directed him to a young Odin. The rest was more or less history, though mythology often got the tales of Loki wrong more often than not… Still, it was all in the past now.

The past was made to be final and unalterable. The present was all in the moment. And the future? The future was far more dynamic and volatile than that of what destiny claimed to be, and it left ample room for individual agency in the shaping of said destiny. To put it in other terms, time (and therefore the past, present _and_ _future_ ) was cyclical rather than linear. Not what those Moirai referred to as a single path.

"Sister, you're getting yourself riled up, thinking about them," Verdandi chuckled as she and Skuld entered their space beneath Yggdrasil.

"Not as if they'll be a problem anymore, I should think," Skuld inputted with a half smile.

"However," Verdandi started a touch cautiously. "We may have encountered a slight problem when we were setting everything back…"

Urd finally looked up from the loom. "What sort of problem?"

"Well…"

Skuld rolled her eyes and picked up where Verdandi trailed off. "The Creator's second left a deal open before we could step in."

"And you remember what happened the last time someone left an open deal up for interpretation—"

"Story short, it didn't end well for the poor sap," Skuld concluded before Verdandi could go into a long and boring retelling of 'what happened the last time'.

Urd huffed her acknowledgment of the statement. She trusted her sisters to do their jobs as they trusted her to do hers. Now that they had reworked the world back to what it was, it was time to go back to their usual routine.

Verdandi sighed a little as she picked up what Urd was feeling. "You know we can't do anything else to help him. Any more interfering could cause a cosmic imbalance."

"Of course she knows," Skuld said offhandedly. "She just can't get over her major soft spot for the little archangel."

"Oh, stop it. We all had a soft spot for him," Verdandi rebuked with a slight glare.

"It doesn't matter," Urd interrupted before an argument could break out. "We can't do anything more…" _Not unless Gabriel came to them first._

 **~o-O-o~**

He woke up to the stench of blood.

Blue eyes snapped open to stare at a staggering amount of red.

His back hurt. Something was drying on his arms and hands.

Those blue orbs were dragged down to look at the hands.

Blood. That was blood. A _lot_ of blood.

 _What happened..?_

Blue eyes flicked back up.

Bodies. Three. Completely torn apart. There was an arm – ripped off near the shoulder and tossed to the side of its owner – with the hand a crushed mess. When he looked at the owner's face, glassy eyes stared back at him. A gruesome mask of agony and horror was permanently etched upon Clotho's screaming face.

Lucifer blinked and looked away, shaking his head. But that only made the throbbing in his skull worse. He let out a hiss at the stabbing pain and went to hold a hand to his head when he remembered the sticky red substance coating said hand. He made a disgusted face at his hand before putting it back down in his lap.

He was sitting with his back against the wall of the building, his mind distantly registered as he took in the bloody massacre before him. It was almost four in the afternoon – about six hours since the Moirai started messing with things. Five hours since he met with Clotho and Lachesis. Five hours for _this_ to have happened.

Five hours that Lucifer didn't remember.

 _Did he do this?_

Lucifer stared for another minute, considering his options. Finally, he settled on the only one that would help calm his racing heart and sooth his frayed nerves.

 _Find Gabriel._

* * *

 **A/N: _So_... the Fates/Norns weren't even supposed to show up in this fic (and I don't _plan_ on having them come back, except being mentioned). I just kind of got sidetracked and randomly got inspired – they just happened to fit in as I was working through this chapter. Anyways, I'm back from the beach. More chapters are on the way... as soon as I write them. But yeah, it's good to be back (again).**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

* * *

 **Broken Twisted Lullabies:** Your excitement is appreciated, and despite the end of the chapter, we're not done with Disney World just yet (speaking of, that was certainly chaotic, wasn't it?).

 **Jacquelyn Glover:** Hey, I can't cook or bake either – my little sister got that talent. Plus having Gabriel stress baking was just fun (and it's this little cannon in my head that the real Gabriel would totally do it if he wanted to).

 **Borrowed Silence:** I had a wonderful time. Thank you :3 XD


	3. Close My Eyes

**Chapter 2**

 **Close My Eyes**

 _Find Gabriel. Find Gabriel. Find Gabriel._

Over and over, those two words raced through Lucifer's mind as he stumbled out of the room, leaving that bloody mess behind him. He didn't want to risk flying. He was too disoriented for that.

 _What happened?_

No matter how much he tried, he simply couldn't remember a single thing that transpired during those lost hours. It was frustrating, and it scared him. He could have done anything, and yet he didn't know what he had done.

The last thing he _did_ remember was giving up on negotiating with the Fates and resorting to threatening them. Apparently that hadn't ended well. He rolled his eyes at the thought. Understatement of the year.

But as he stepped out of the building where he'd found Clotho, he considered the possibility that maybe those Fates had done as he had... asked (and he used that word lightly).

He couldn't sense anything different from before the Moirai had messed with things. It was like everything had just continued on. The only thing that had changed was his absence from his brother's side and the deaths of the three Greco-Roman Fates.

Considering that... Lucifer stopped in his tracks, hovering just beyond the building's doorway. He couldn't go back to Gabriel or Castiel or the Winchesters like this. Not with blood drenching his clothes and coating his arms, splattered upon his face. What would they think?! Nothing good!

By now Lucifer was _slightly_ panicking. His eyes flickered across the expanse in front of him, searching for nothing but picking out everything. He made himself stop and calm down. There wasn't any use in freaking out over this. If they knew, they knew. If they didn't... What they didn't know wouldn't kill them.

He just had to clean up the mess first, make it go away.

Lucifer turned around and headed back into the building.

 **~o-O-o~**

On the grounds of a private landing strip, two foreigners stepped off of an airplane and onto American soil.

 **~o-O-o~**

Gabriel tapped his foot impatiently. Lucifer had said he'd be right back. Of course, Gabriel knew that 'right back' wouldn't be _right back,_ but this was ridiculous. Eight hours. Eight! What in the world was Lucifer up to?

He had been fine with Lucifer going off somewhere, as he had thought that his brother was just trying to give Gabriel a bit of space in some weird attempt at an excuse for Gabriel to sneak off to Lucilia (which Gabriel _had_ in fact done). And when Cassie came looking for him at Mary's request that they all hang out together for the rest of the day, Gabriel had still been fine, albeit slightly annoyed, with Lucifer's absence.

But now Gabriel was getting fed up. He had waited outside while the humans (and Castiel once Dean dragged him into it) ate dinner at some restaurant – the Liberty Tree Tavern – which had apparently had a _heavenly_ dessert called the Oooey Gooey Toffee Cake. And he was still waiting outside even though Sam, Dean, Mary and Castiel had all gone to the area in front of the castle for the nine o'clock fireworks nightshow.

Now, keep in mind that Gabriel was 'outside'. That didn't mean a thing as to _where_ he was outside. And to answer the question of where he was, Gabriel was standing on the balcony where Lucifer originally left him and Castiel.

And as he waited, Gabriel didn't give a flying shit about whether or not he looked and/or sounded like the girl who got ditched at prom. Yes, Lucifer had only up and left for eight hours. But the point of the matter: Lucifer had been _missing_ for eight hours. Without a single word over their bond.

Any other time Lucifer had left for over a third of the day without telling Gabriel where he was going (because they hardly ever went anywhere without the other – kind of a making-up-for-lost-time thing), Lucifer would have at least said something by now.

But still, nothing. And that worried Gabriel.

Which resulted in the rather not-so-good mood Gabriel was in – a messy mixture of anxious worry and building ire.

It didn't help that part of why he was even getting mad in the first place was because of pesky human emotions and his heightened awareness of them. Okay, maybe not _awareness_ but simply feeling said emotions more than normal. Because he was _totally_ normal, even under archangelic standards.

Ugh, someone just end it now before he had an existential crisis.

 _Anyways_... So another reason why he was mad – Gabriel wasn't even angry with Lucifer. He was angry at himself. He shouldn't be this dependent on Lucifer to be there.

But Lucifer was all he had left. Of the original four brothers – the original _family_ – Lucifer was the only other archangel not dead and still all there in the head, and both Gabriel and Lucifer knew just how likely it was for dear ol' Dad to make another comeback. It was just them.

And if Gabriel was being completely honest with himself, that absolutely terrified him.

Back when Gabriel had been in his private witness protection, running as a pagan, his older brothers were still technically around even if he wasn't there with them. But now, if anything happened to Lucifer, Gabriel would be completely alone.

It was kind of selfish, but all Gabriel wanted was to have his family back. Whenever Gabriel was by himself, if he closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander long enough, he could imagine them all together again before the fighting started. Losing Lucifer would destroy any chance to have a semblance of that dream.

And now Gabriel sounded like an angsting teenager. That was just great.

Then again... that was what he was – not the angsting part, that was all Gabriel the archangel right there. Gabriel Bennett was the base of this version of him. Sure, Gabriel made the body look the way he wanted it to, but the boy's original being was still there underneath all of Gabriel's fancy magic and grace.

It wasn't like Gabriel wanted to get rid of his human half (well, technically it wasn't _half_... nah, no need to go too in-depth). Gabriel Bennett was why Gabriel the archangel was even around right now after all. Really, if Gabriel were to take apart his being and separate archangel from human, the human portion would be much larger than the archangel. More than anything, Gabriel was a human with an archangel's grace and the shit-ton of the archangel's memories with the add on of all of his human past lives.

Was that stable? Nope. If anything, it was potentially disastrous. Nothing like a psychic split to blow up the northeastern hemisphere.

Because that was what would happen if Gabriel's harmony with his human half slipped out of sync with his archangelic half. The discord would only kindle any clashes between grace and soul that he already had – clashes being a lack of similar interests. Any time Gabriel let Bennett out was risky enough.

The Gabriel that Sam and Dean and Castiel and Mary and Lucifer knew right now was merely a representation of the archangel's _and_ his human lives' (more accurately Gabriel Bennett's) personalities and ideals. Whenever Gabriel Bennett came to the forefront, a split from that merged being was created and then sealed back over when it was just Gabriel again… as confusing as that sounded, it was a lot more confusing than that right there, but for some reason it made more sense with a visual.

(Said visual deals with the hands and is _really_ hard to explain without a visual to explain the visual!)

But yeah, wasn't that peachy? The only reason Gabriel was alive was also a ticking time bomb. Kinda cliché, but that's just what it was. Still, it would be sort of hard to even get to the point of detonation simply due to the fact that Gabriel and Gabriel Bennett had very similar interests. So, for now, the world could keep on spinning.

Gabriel sat down on the balcony's floor and leaned against the railing, letting out a sigh. It wasn't often that he stopped to think about what loomed around the corner of time, the future. For that matter, it wasn't like it was good to dwell on stuff that may or may not happen.

At least he wasn't pondering life itself. He shivered at the thought. He'd have to be really, _really_ depressed to go there.

Gabriel felt himself calming down a bit. That was good. He and Lucifer didn't need to fight about where the friggin' hell Lucifer went for eight— _nine Goddamn hours!_

No, no… calm down. Don't need to go there. Deep breath – in through the nose and out the mouth.

Lucifer was bound to show up eventually, Gabriel reasoned. It wasn't like Luci was dead – Gabriel would have felt that; their bond would have snapped in half.

And if you wanted an example of what happened to an angel that had a bond similar to Gabriel and Lucifer's, go look at Michael. Of course, the bond between Michael and Lucifer had been irrefutably stronger, but the effects of such a bond being shattered were close enough. One's just not the same after a bond breaks.

So, yeah, good and bad news on that front.

Gabriel halfheartedly watched the light shows going on around him. Soon enough, the park grew quiet as the children and their parents and other little groups and couples left, and then the place went dark as the workers shut everything down for the night. At a rather ungodly hour, Gabriel was still leaning against the railing, staring at nothing while his mind was elsewhere.

He blinked when the slightest sound of ruffling feathers reached his ears. Slowly, he got up to turn and face his brother. "You're late," Gabriel stated calmly.

Lucifer glanced away for a split second before meeting Gabriel's amber gaze once more. "Yeah, I kind of lost track of time," he responded lamely, rubbing the back of his head.

"You know what? Fine," Gabriel huffed – his emotions finally starting to take over. "Look— okay, I really didn't want to sound like that needy girlfriend, but _where the hell were you_? 'Cause you checking out so I could go see Lucilia was okay for the first couple of hours, but after that— what the hell?!"

Lucifer sighed, his arm falling back to his side. And Gabriel could've sworn the asshole looked relieved. "I don't have a good answer for you, Gabriel."

"I'll take any answer at this point," Gabriel snapped, bristling.

And Lucifer was going to respond with a perfectly legitimate answer that would have swept it all under the rug, but then Gabriel saw a small patch of red staining Lucifer's shirt.

"Is that… blood on your sleeve?"

After a glance down at said sleeve, Lucifer slowly moved his hands behind his back, as if that would keep Gabriel from not already seeing the red specks littering the inside of the sleeve cuff.

"I was…" Lucifer paused hesitantly, which let Gabriel _know_ that something was off. "I was dealing with a few demons," he finally answered.

As much as Gabriel wanted to believe Lucifer was being literal, the younger archangel had the strange feeling that his older brother was being more metaphorical than anything. He could tell Lucifer wasn't outright lying to him, but there was still a cold tug on their bond that told Gabriel he wasn't necessarily telling the truth either. He wasn't quite sure if that bothered him as much as it should have.

 **~o-O-o~**

Lucifer couldn't help but feel an overwhelming surge of relief when he realized Gabriel didn't remember anything about what had happened, though he did feel somewhat guilty for letting Gabriel think that Lucifer was simply giving him some personal time to go see the boy's little sister.

 _It was better this way,_ he told himself. No one remembered what happened. Well, there was a chance that Castiel knew, but if Gabriel didn't remember, then it was likely that Lucifer was the only one. It would be as if nothing happened.

When Gabriel asked about the blood on Lucifer's sleeve, Lucifer's answer wasn't a true lie. Just... a metaphor. If anything, those Moirai _were_ demons. Of all the Fates that existed, those three were the worst. They weren't necessarily the most powerful, but they were certainly among the most influential. _Damn bitches._

But they were dead now. They couldn't do anything anymore. Hopefully, the other Fates would just stay away. Lucifer didn't want to deal with any of them again.

"And you couldn't have just told me you'd be gone for a while?" Gabriel said irritably. "You could have done that over the bond with a thought."

It would seem that Lucifer hadn't been thinking. In his effort to clean up the bloody mess he'd made, he hadn't considered letting Gabriel know he was okay. It hadn't really occurred to him until just then that this would have been the longest they'd been apart since the youngest archangel came back – and before that would have been when Crowley knocked them out. Of course Gabriel freaked out. Bad things tended to happen when they were separated for long periods at a time.

"Ugh— never mind. Just— just forget it. Let's just..." Gabriel stopped to let out a tired sigh. "Let's just go home."

"Yeah," Lucifer readily agreed. The sooner he got away from here the better. Perhaps one day he could come back here with Gabriel and enjoy the stay; however, that would not be today (as it was almost two in the morning now) or tomorrow or the next week or month following. "Home…"

 **~o-O-o~**

Minute clicks could be heard as buttons on the controller were pressed or the sticks moved. Amber eyes carefully roved over the massive TV's screen.

He kind of wanted to play as the Gladiator because Athena was the one telling the story in the first place, but the Doppelganger looked like fun… He was really only stuck between those two. Nisha and Wilhelm would just be slightly awkward to play, seeing as in the Sequel you killed both of them. The Claptrap… well, the tag that went with his name pretty much explained it all ('as a mistake', though he was sure it was only meant jokingly). And he really couldn't see himself playing Hammerlock's sister.

 _So… Doppelganger or Gladiator…_

Welp, he could always go back and play the other character at some point. Doppelganger it was. He couldn't wait for all the quips that would come with this character. Hopefully, it would continue to distract him from the wrongness of the world around him. Ignorance was bliss, right?

But _of course_ there was a CL4P-TP ready and waiting for him right as he was actually able to play. He got hit with a sense of déjà vu due to a Claptrap greeting him at the beginning of the first Borderlands and the Sequel, and while he honestly didn't mind the NPC as much as he was sure others did, he also didn't want to listen to any of them longer than he had to… Now that he thought about it, there was probably going to be a bunch of them in this game. Cue frustrated sigh.

Still, he had his character follow the CL4P-TP unit through the corridors of the Helios moonbase space station (and wasn't that a mouthful). He had to admit, they were really only good for opening doors, and even then, sometimes it took the Claptrap units longer than necessary to do so.

Hmm… and it looked like the main enemy replacing the Hyperion soldiers would be the Lost Legion people. The sound of several gunshots echoed throughout the room as he fired at the enemy mobs.

"I have grenades!" he exclaimed triumphantly, throwing his hands up in the air with his controller still clutched in his right hand.

"Um— Gabriel?"

Said archangel spun in his seat on his really awesomely comfy couch to face one Castiel. "Heya, Cassie! What's up?"

"I'm doing well… What are you playing?" the angel asked incredulously.

That was to be expected, Gabriel supposed. Only Lucifer and Dean knew that Gabriel had taken to playing video games on the Xbox One in his spare time. He was sure Sam and Mary would figure it out at some point too, but for now they were still (somehow) out of the loop.

"This, my dear little bro, is Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel," Gabriel answered excitedly, scooting over and gesturing for Castiel to sit down next to him. "And you're in luck. I just started. I finished pretty much everything in the Sequel about twenty minutes ago, and when I realized it was only one in the morning, I figured now was a good time as any to play the Pre-Sequel."

Having more or less followed Gabriel's ramblings, Castiel made a small nod of understanding, taking a seat as Gabriel went back to playing his game. "Is there a reason you're being rather aggressive against the people attacking your character?"

"Bennett was able to get Luci to vent most of his frustration through mobile games or just stuff you play on your phone, but I need something a bit more interactive," Gabriel responded as he finished off the rest of the Lost Legion mobs in order to proceed to the next area where Jack was waiting.

"So you resort to first-person shooting?"

Gabriel paused momentarily in his character's movement, barely listening to the CL4P-TP go on about how robots feel pain _"in slow motion, with great intensity!"_ as he glanced over to Castiel. While he knew that Castiel wasn't completely oblivious to modern pop culture (i.e. most of the Internet, TV, phones, etc.), he hadn't thought his little bro had been introduced to the world of video games yet. Maybe Dean had something to do with it— Ah, something to ponder later.

"Pretty much, yeah," he finally said, return half of his attention back to the game. He let out bark of laughter at Jack's intro. Yup, this was definitely going to be fun. Seeing the fascist dictator of Hyperion (albeit before his rise to power) getting punched in the face and the words 'In Over His Head' was only brightening Gabriel's mood even more.

As Gabriel made quick work of the Lost Legion soldiers, he stole another glance over at Castiel. "Hey, so like… when did you learn about the world of video games?"

A pained smile passed across Castiel's face before he answered. "It wasn't Dean." At Gabriel's prompting look, the angel continued. "Charlie happened to stop by when it was just me in the Bunker. She showed me."

Gabriel carefully hid a wince at Castiel's sorrowful tone. The youngest archangel still wasn't completely filled in on everything that had happened when he was dead, but he knew a little bit about Charlie. And from what he knew, she had been a good soul. Her death had hit the boys hard.

Gabriel looked away briefly, pausing the game when he made up his mind. Snapping his fingers, Gabriel brought a second TV and another controller into existence and held it out to Castiel. "Wanna co-op with me?"

He was graced with that pained smile turning into a surprised yet appreciative expression before Castiel took the controller, looking it over after a glance at the new TV screen that had a Gladiator character set up for him. "What are all of the controls?"

"Well, right trigger to shoot, left trigger to aim…"

Gabriel continued on with explaining the controls, demonstrating them and giving feedback as Castiel got the hang of them, while the worry that had been bothering him for the past week was shoved to the back of his mind.

It wasn't like he could do anything about it anyway. Not when he didn't even know what _it_ was. Not when Lucifer wouldn't even _think_ about it, let alone tell Gabriel.

But Gabriel figured he'd be a good guy and have a bit of patience. It could have been anything that was bothering Lucifer (and in turn Gabriel). Sometimes people needed some time to come to terms with things. Gabriel knew that. Just like how he knew that there were still some things that Lucifer hadn't told him about yet – things that where located under 'touchy subjects'.

Still… Gabriel had thought they were getting past keeping secrets. At least Lucifer wasn't lying to him.

* * *

 **A/N: If you really want to read my excuses for not posting in over a month, you can read it on my profile, but here's a short and quick apology: I'm sorry for falling off the face of the Earth. I'm back now… for the most part. I'm way behind on how much I should have written by now, but I'm working on it. That's something at least.**

 **(Btw** **—** **No, not even Castiel remembers what happened with the Fates. The gang is oblivious as to what happened with dear Luci.)**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

* * *

 **teabrows:** I don't mind long reviews at all. I left a rather  long response to you in _In the Light of My brother_ (which should be updated to show now if you want to read it). I'll admit, you're not far from the truth concerning what's going on with poor Luci. And I'll come up with a (hopefully) completely adequate explanation about why/how the Fates - both the Moirai (Moirae being singular) and the Norns - work and what they were doing.

 **Avenage99:** Yes, be patient with me. I'm a bit of a lair (aren't all humans?), especially when it comes to getting some chapters out. Not always, but it happens sometimes. And I'm glad you're enjoying my stories. You shouldn't be jealous. Everyone has writing potential. The creativity is there - you just have to tap into it. Execution is kind of another matter entirely though.

 **Broken Twisted Lullabies:** And I can't believe it took me this long to get another chapter out. T~T But Lucilia is fine; they're all fine (*cough* except Lucifer *cough*). Anyways, plot is moving, but until the next chapter is probably just going to be fluff/filler with a bit of angst and only a slight touch of plot. I have to get in some good times before everything goes to hell (not entirely metaphorically).


	4. Still There

**Chapter 3**

 **Still There**

Leaning against the doorway, Sam shook his head at the sight before him.

He'd woken up to the sound of shouting – undeniably Gabriel and Dean's voices but surprisingly Castiel's voice, too, as well as other vocalizations and noises that were most likely coming from a TV speaker. When he entered the room of the commotion, Sam had to stop and stare at the three giant TV screens taking up over half the face of the wall. Gabriel, Cas and Dean were all sitting on Gabriel's large couch and were furiously mashing buttons and moving the sticks on the handheld controllers.

Sam had known the three had been sneaking away into Gabriel's entertainment room for the past few days for something, and apparently it was to play a colorful, first-person shooting game called… _Borderlands 2_. From what Sam could see, they had just started a battle with a cyborg – Wilhelm(?) – and Dean had just muttered something about having to kill himself, which Sam really didn't understand, even as he threw out what looked like a turret.

Gabriel responded with a typical smartass comment, resulting in Dean glaring at him before cussing and quickly moving his character away from several attacking robots. A quick glance to Castiel's screen showed Sam that the angel was the one who had caught the cyborg boss within a circular mass of purple/black… stuff.

Sam's gaze flickered back to Dean, and the screen in front of him as his brother's character 'died' – well, went into something called 'Fight For Your Life!' – but before too long Cas had moved his character over and started reviving Dean while Gabriel distracted the boss and other mobs, sprinting to the other side of the area and jumping around and occasionally turning to fire his (her? technically his character seemed to be a girl) assault rifle at the cyborg with enough precision to get several red, blocked CRITICAL hits.

Gabriel made a frustrated tsking noise when a particular shower of mortars fell right next to his character and took down the cyan blue bar right above what Sam assumed was the health bar. "When you two are done smooching, ya mind helping out?"

Dean grumbled a retort that Castiel took the time to glare at him for, but soon all three were firing at the boss and his minions. Gabriel crowed their victory along with an enthusiastic fist pump in the air. And Sam found himself smiling at the playful antics over who got which bits of the loot.

It was as Dean was assigning badass token things that Gabriel leaned back and finally addressed Sam. "Make up your mind, Samsquatch. Join us or scram," the archangel declared his ultimatum without even looking away from his TV's screen.

"I'm fine just watching," Sam waved him off.

"Aw… Come on, Sammy," Dean said, almost teasingly. He had stopped what he was doing to turn and face Sam. "Let your inner nerd out."

"The plot is rather entertaining, Sam," Cas added, glancing over his shoulder at Sam.

"I'd still rather just watch."

Dean rolled his eyes and turned back to look at his screen. "Whatever, dude. You're missing out."

While Sam simply went back to watching the three quest their way back to Sanctuary, he took the silent offer Gabriel sent his way to sit down (though Sam wasn't on the couch, he was on the room's very comfortable bed – because Gabriel's entertainment room had a bed _and_ a couch). He listened as Gabriel rambled about how he'd lured Dean into playing with him and Cas – starting off at the beginning of a final playthrough of the Pre-Sequel and quickly going through it so Dean could get some of the plot before moving on to the Sequel for some of the 'more epic stuff' – during lulls in NPC dialogue.

What interested Sam the most was the main villain of _Borderlands 2_. When Sam asked about this Handsome Jack person, Dean responded with "he's funny but also a psychotic bag of cats and happens to have a right to be that way". Gabriel was somewhat reluctant to agree but not before adding "you really should reserve judgment until after you've seen everything he does".

That made Sam pause and give the archangel a troubled look. Obviously Gabriel had played through the entire series before, so he knew what happened. However, the statement sounded like there was something about Handsome Jack that hit close to home. Sam didn't know what it was, but he supposed he might be able to get Cas to tell him or at least more about this Jack character later.

Some time around when Gabriel, Castiel and Dean made it back to a now-floating city of Sanctuary, Sam realized someone was missing. For some reason (though it was more than likely because he had been distracted by watching the other three play their game), it hadn't occurred to him that with Mary out visiting an old friend, Lucifer was somewhere either in the Bunker or elsewhere alone.

While that didn't sound all that concerning, Sam was used to seeing Gabriel and Lucifer joined at the hip more often than not. And when they weren't together, they usually knew where the other was. But recently, Sam couldn't help but notice their… separation, for lack of a better word.

Again, not all that completely concerning. It wasn't like they were constantly together, 24/7. Still, Sam had rarely seen Lucifer in the past two weeks, and Gabriel was being rather quiet about it. Neither had said anything about their abrupt departure from Disney World – which had been even more suspicious when he, Dean, Mary and Cas were all told that their rooms were still reserved to them for another couple days when they tried to check out on the original leave date, but the humans and their angelic friend had just accepted the unexpected gift and stayed on the extended vacation, not passing up the opportunity.

In any case, Sam found himself asking: "So where's Lucifer?"

Gabriel stiffened, and Castiel's worried glance over at the archangel did nothing to assure Sam of the idea that everything was fine. Dean must have caught the look, too, but didn't comment on it. He did, however, give Sam a warning in the form of a raised eyebrow before he went back to selling some of his loot to an ammunition machine.

"You can ask him that the next time you happen to see him."

Sam frowned at the back of Gabriel's head. The archangel's voice had been tense, strained. Something was definitely wrong, or at the very least, _not right_.

His mind made up, Sam quietly slipped out of the room as the three gradually settled back into playing their game, subtly closing the door behind him with a soft click. He slowly made his way to the entrance of the Bunker, deeming the library as a good place to begin his search for their older resident archangel.

It turned out that Sam didn't have to look any further. He paused in the library's entryway at the sight of Lucifer's back to him. It almost looked like Lucifer was staring out into space, zoned out, or just something – Sam really didn't know. He _did_ know that Lucifer wasn't breathing (not that angels – let alone _archangels_ – needed to breathe or anything).

"Hey, Lucifer, you should go talk to Gabriel and work out whatever's going on between you two…" Sam trailed of when Lucifer didn't so much as twitch. (He still wasn't breathing.) "Lucifer?"

Sam took a small step into the room, taking another step when that didn't garner a reaction. Eventually Sam was only a couple feet away from the zoned out archangel.

"Lucifer?" he tried again, reaching out to lightly touch his shoulder.

Sam's hand never reached its destination.

A crushing grip wrapped around his wrist before twisting his arm behind him and pinning him down on the closest table. Sam was hit with the disturbingly familiar feeling of a bone being snapped right before it all suddenly let up.

"… Sam?"

He raggedly let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and rested his head against the cool table before turning his head to look over his shoulder at a bewildered Lucifer, who abruptly let him go and moved back a couple steps.

"Mind explaining whatever the hell that was?" Sam prompted with no small amount of tension in his voice. He fully turned and took a seat in the nearest chair, cradling his injured ( _definitely fractured_ ) wrist.

"You startled me," the archangel pouted defensively, even as he brushed two fingers against Sam's temple.

Sam refrained from shivering at the wash of cool grace flooding his system, healing any damage he had received, before both it and the pain simply faded – leaving nothing but a slight buzz. Instead, he raised an eyebrow at the archangel. _Continue_ , the look said.

"I was…" Lucifer had that frown on his face – the one people usually get when they've walked all the way to a certain room and then have to turn back around when they've realized they don't remember why they went to that room or what they were there for. "I was looking for something…"

Sam was in no way on good terms with Lucifer. Not completely anyway.

He might never be able to ever really trust the archangel, but Gabriel trusted him… And Sam kind of trusted Gabriel – he definitely trusted Gabriel Bennett. So he had accepted the olive branch that came with the youngest archangel reconciling with the second oldest archangel – the olive branch being that the two distracted each other with themselves, which meant that any shenanigans were directed at each other and not any unwilling participants (read as: everyone else). Essentially, over the past five or so months, Gabriel and Lucifer had been more occupied with being brothers again than going out Trickster-ing or doing Apocalyptic-y stuff, respectively… And _wow_ , Sam was never saying that out loud.

Still, after having to learn to deal with Lucifer's presence (which was surprisingly less difficult than Sam would prefer to admit), the human could say that Lucifer was _okay_ to be around. The archangel was actually kind of funny and _a lot_ smarter than he let on most of the time. Sam couldn't help but wonder sometimes if it was arrogance or pride that made Lucifer do stupid things that helped lead to his downfall. Sometimes he concluded that it was both.

Either way, he _knew_ Lucifer enough from past experiences to be able to tell that something was seriously _off_ right now.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" he asked, even though he figured the answer was—

"No."

Sam blinked and then frowned. He hadn't exactly been expecting a straight answer. Maybe some avoidance or not even getting an answer at all… Not the sheepish, singular word that just came out of Lucifer's mouth.

"Hey… Are you… okay?"

It wouldn't hurt to just ask. Some people (like Dean) didn't appreciate the offer to simply spill about whatever was bothering you. Sam really wouldn't care one way or the other if Lucifer actually told him what was going on with him. He just hoped that the archangel would take the initiative to go talk to _someone_ if he decided not to tell Sam.

"I, uh— I don't think it's anything for you to worry your pretty little head over," Lucifer replied coolly, smoothing over his initial stumble by putting on an air of his usual grace. (Pun not intended.) And now Lucifer's metaphorical walls were up, a blank mask covering any other discrepancies in his demeanor up.

Well, Sam tried. He would just have to mention this little _incident_ to Castiel or Gabriel, and then he'd be telling Dean and Mary right after.

 **~o-O-o~**

"Hey, your werewolf buddy is still coming, right?"

Dean looked over to amber eyed archangel. "Yeah, I think so. Why?"

"Did he say if he was bringing the rest of his pack with him?" Gabriel asked as he carefully watched over the cooking dishes, taking a quick peek at the turkey in the oven.

"Uh…"

"No," Sam answered for him, striding evenly into the kitchen while he looked down at the tablet in his hands. "And Garth said he's only stopping by to say hi before he goes back to his pack for the rest of the holiday."

"Oh."

"Well, that just means I don't have to make as much of this stuff _rare_ ," Gabriel quipped without turning to the room's newest occupant.

Dean rolled his eyes. Gabriel could fix any of the food to any of the coming guests' preferences at the snap of his fingers. It was just the archangel showing off at having everything right the first try and having done it the old fashioned way.

"What about the witch twins? Are they bringing anyone else with them or no?" Gabriel continued.

Dean couldn't help but think that the archangel was going down a mental checklist of people attending the little gathering he and Mary had plotted. It wasn't going to be anything too big, but it would include any family friends for sure.

"Max sounded a bit hesitant about it, but he and Alicia are coming too. And no, I don't know if they're bringing anyone, though I doubt it," Sam replied rather knowledgeably, still looking down at the tablet.

"Jody should be here soon," Dean inputted before Gabriel could even ask. "She's gonna have a great time meeting you."

"Aw, shucks, didn't know you thought so highly of little ol' me," the archangel practically cheered. There was relative silence in the kitchen as Gabriel took the time to stir a few of his concoctions. "Any word from Sam-a-lam's lady friend?"

Dean barely hid smirk when Sam looked up at _that_.

"Eileen and I aren't—"

"Don't even try to deny it, Sammy-kins! I saw you on FaceTime with her _last night_."

"I was giving her directions—"

"And what about that time you went off on a hunt with her alone? Bet you kids had some _fun_ ," Gabriel interrupted again, though this time with a waggle of his brows.

Dean lightly coughed at the implication, not that he cared. If Sam wanted to become a thing with Eileen, he wasn't about to get in the way of it. He was mainly against relationships that weren't healthy for Sam or anyone else involved. Still, Dean hadn't thought Sam had made a move yet.

"Woah, wait," he cut in, pointing a finger at Sam, who had turned to face him. "I thought you went on that hunt solo."

Gabriel let out a low whistle. "Ooh, that's naughty, Sammy."

"Shut up," Sam hissed at him before returning his attention back to Dean. "I told you I was meeting up with someone. You're the one who assumed otherwise after not listening."

Gabriel let out an amused snort as Dean huffed his irritation. "Whatever, Sam, is your girlfriend coming or not?" Dean asked, deliberately putting a bit of emphasis on 'girlfriend'.

Sam shot a glare at both of them and then rolled his eyes, opting to look back down at the tablet he had placed on the table. "Yes, she's coming… and she'd not my girlfriend."

"Hmm… We're going to have to fix that," Gabriel intoned in a sing-song voice.

"I _will_ throw this tablet at you."

Eventually both Dean and Sam were kicked out of the kitchen. Something about Gabriel wanting to keep most of the food courses a surprise, though Dean pretty much already knew what most of what was being cooked was.

Still, it gave Sam and Dean the excuse to go finish the 'preparations', which mainly consisted of making the tables in the library dinner table worthy. Thankfully, they didn't have to worry about not having enough chairs, so they quickly moved on to decorations their mom had insisted upon. The open room was soon lightly littered with (fake) fall leaves and other Thanksgiving-y trinkets. Dean was rather proud of the cornucopia he had arranged on the middle table.

Not too long after they had finished, Sam's phone received a message from Garth indicating that the hunter-turned-werewolf was close and that he'd be there any minute now.

"I still can't believe we're actually doing this."

Sam elbow nudged Dean in the side as they made their way down the corridors to the garage. "Just think of it like we asked everyone to come over so we could all hang out."

Dean tried to put it all into perspective with that mindset. "Nope. It's still weird," he said, shaking his head. "Dude, I'm freaking out. We've never had this many people come over to 'hang out'."

"Well…" Sam started, trying to think of something that might calm Dean down. "I dunno. Don't think too hard about it. Be yourself."

"Very inspirational," Dean grumbled.

Sam just gave him a helpless shrug. Dean shook his head and rolled his eyes.

 _How had they even gotten here?_

That's what Dean asked himself every time something like this happened. 'Something like this' being, well, _this_. Domestic normalcy (as close as they could get to it anyway). Dean had only gotten small tastes of it throughout his life, though he knew that Sam had known and felt what it was like more than Dean ever could have. Sam had tried to treat Dean to it once in a while.

But _this_. This was way beyond what Dean was ready for.

Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family.

Yeah, no. Brain still in overload.

Dean had maybe been a part of one 'proper' Thanksgiving holiday – and that had been with Lisa and Ben. It had been a bit awkward, but it had also been nice. This was something else.

It was still sometimes hard for Dean to wrap his head around the fact that they now had _two archangels_ living with them in the Bunker. Some hunts still got kind of rough, but nothing was all that life threatening for the most part. There wasn't some dark, evil big-bad on the verge of destroying the world as they knew it.

Life was… easy. It was relaxed. It was nice.

And that was why Dean was hesitant to accept it all. Now don't take that the wrong way – Dean was grateful for the good stuff life was throwing his way, but he was also just waiting for the inevitable curveball that would pull the rug out from underneath their feet.

" _Dean_."

The older Winchester blinked, his eyes quickly snapping over to the source of the half-irritated and half-concerned voice of his brother. "What?"

Sam just let out a knowing sigh before answering. "I _said_ , Castiel and Jody, Claire, and Alex will be here in another hour or so. And Mom just texted that she's a couple hours out, but she and the twins should make it in time. I think Lucifer's still setting up the area outside."

"Oh," Dean responded blankly. He really zoned out there for a minute, didn't he? Oops.

"Come on, let's get saying hi to Garth over with."

Yes, Dean did consider Garth a friend, but he was not looking forward to the werewolf's customary hug. "Right. Fun times."

"Don't be mean, you jerk," Sam said with a smirk.

"Whatever, bitch."

* * *

 **A/N: Hmm… not as long as I wanted it to be, but I feel like I should just let you guys imagine the best Thanksgiving dinner ever for the 'little' SPN family I have accumulated here. It was a relatively good place to stop too. Really, this is just making it easier for me to pick up however I want next chapter. This was filler with 'hints' of plot anyways, so next chapter might be more filler with a bit more plot. IDK.**

 **Dammit,** _ **Borderlands 2**_ **consumed (is comsuming) my life a little too much over my summer break. And I still have AP English stuff to do! WHY?! (I am such a bad procrastinator. Kill me.)**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

* * *

 **teabrows:** Well, I'm glad you liked my little essay.

As for that last question of yours... I'm not really sure. However, there's this one fanfic called _A History of Heaven_ by Crawler (it's about 160k words long if you really wanna go read it; it's not half bad even if you don't agree with some of the things in there). In the fic, the backstory for Gabriel and Raphael is that they were originally one being before they were split in two – Gabriel and Raphael became practically opposites; Gabriel being everything Raphael wasn't and vice versa. The resulting relationship is actually pretty strained since Gabriel is all warm and fun loving while Raphael could get kind of cold at times with his strict, no nonsense attitude. (It's been a while since I actually read the story, so sue me if some of what I just wrote is a bit off. Please don't actually sue me though...)

But I guess if I'm just sticking to SPN canon, then I suppose it's possible for Raphael and Gabriel to have been like Michael and Lucifer, which would kind of make the relationship between Lucifer and Gabriel understandable – they're _similar_ through being the younger brothers within a set/pair. It's also possible that after Michael raised Lucifer, Chuck made Raphael; Michael was in charge of Raphael's upbringing; Chuck then made Gabriel, and Lucifer was in charge of raising Gabriel instead of Michael or Raphael (which would take into account Lucifer teaching Gabriel all of his tricks); the relationship between Raphael and Gabriel could have been anything at that point, but I have the feeling that either way, Raphael would have still treated Gabriel similarly to how Michael treated Lucifer, if on a lesser scale.

Anyways, the point is that when Gabriel fled Heaven during Michael and Lucifer's fighting, Raphael (along with the rest of Heaven) most likely assumed Gabriel had died (at least, that's what Gabriel was implying – in my opinion; that he'd faked his dead). And what's a way that some people deal with grief? They shut down and more or less cut themselves off from their emotions. Not healthy, but that could have been what happened to turn Raphael into what we know of him in the show.

I hope you got your answer somewhere in the jumbled mess of words. XD

 **Avenage99:** I knew you'd like that part with Borderlands, you poetic philosophical nerd. (Also, I'm thinking about posting a _Tales from the Borderlands_ one-shot about Rhys' thoughts on Jack, post Episode 5. Good idea or no?)


	5. Never Leave Me

**Chapter 4**

 **Never Leave Me**

A gentle breeze swept through the large clearing, rustling the few leaves that still clung to the branches of the surrounding deciduous trees. The air was chilly and foretold the coming of winter. High above the clouds and beyond the atmosphere, the moon shone brilliantly in the night sky. Stars twinkled down at the little beings in the clearing.

Off to the side, away from the humans and the other angel investing in this time together, the two archangels quietly observed the aforementioned humans as they laughed and joked and shared stories with one another in merriment and pointed up at the different constellations in the sky. The younger of the two smiled a little at a particularly loud round of laughter (and Dean's ruffled shout that it wasn't true).

"The lens you put over the clearing was a nice touch. Even the humans can pick out the Andromeda galaxy from here," Gabriel remarked, walking with his brother into the forest.

Lucifer had subtly called him over to the side and whispered over their bond of another clearing – away from prying eyes – where they could have a rather long awaited discussion. Though it might not go as either of them planned.

"I got the idea from that telescope they never use," Lucifer replied. He was taking them further and further from the cheery (and partially drunk) group of humans. "It should keep them entertained for a while. Hopefully they'll all go back inside _before_ they pass out."

A smile crossed Gabriel's face even as he shook his head. "It's too cold for them to stay out in this weather," he huffed.

Lucifer looked back at him briefly before casting a look at their surroundings and then changing their course slightly to the right. Gabriel noted that it was darker in the forest underneath the bare branches of the trees that cast long shadows on the ground. A slight gust of wind had the shadows crawl like fingers against the light from the moon and stars above them.

"All the better. We'll have the outdoors to ourselves for the rest of the night," Lucifer said just loud enough for Gabriel to hear him.

Leaves continued to crunch underneath their feet as they trekked through the forest. Gabriel figured that they were a ten minute walk from the others now. He knew they wouldn't mind the archangels' disappearance for a short while. He and Lucifer had done that a few times, though usually they went a bit farther than just to the next clearing.

"Dinner was nice," Lucifer spoke up after a couple minutes of quiet walking.

Gabriel figured they were close now. The clearing couldn't have been too far, or Lucifer would have just flown them there. And as much as Gabriel liked to take a hike through a forest at night, he would have liked even more to get where they were going so they could have a very much needed conversation.

He had ignored it as much as he could, but the incident with Sam had crossed a line. He couldn't just keep avoiding this and think that it would solve itself (whatever the hell _it_ was). Part of him had wanted to bury his head in the sand and wait for the storm to blow over, but the other part – the part that was rather strong willed in its beliefs – was ready to meet this problem face to face, ready to tackle and overcome it.

Guess which part won in the end. Hint: it wasn't the one that wanted what the Winchesters might have called a coward's way out.

So Gabriel would demand an answer from his brother, and he would persist until he got that answer because Gabriel could be just as stubborn as any of his older brothers when he wanted to be. Oh, and he was definitely going to ask about when this whole mess started. He knew exactly when the behavior shift happened – there was no mistaking it.

"That's good," Gabriel accepted the compliment easily. "Wasn't sure if you'd like some of the dishes. Dean gave that one with spinach and Brussels sprouts the stink eye."

"I like all of the things you make, Gabriel," Lucifer said somewhat offhandedly.

He was looking somewhere off to the left now, but he was still moving forward. Gabriel didn't sense anything suspicious around them. Aside from the Bunker and humans somewhere behind them, there wasn't anything around the area for miles until one reached town. Sure, there was the road, but hardly anyone used it unless they were just passing by.

Gabriel was about to ask Lucifer what he was looking at when they suddenly reached the clearing. It was smaller than the one Lucifer had brought the others to, but it was still open and spacious – large enough to have an oak tree growing in the direct center of it. (And as oddly placed as the tree was, there was nothing particularly special about it.)

"You know…" Lucifer leaned in, whispering in Gabriel's ear. "The others might think we're out here doing _unsavory things_."

Rolling his eyes, Gabriel let out a scoff. "As if. They know we're just teasing them."

"The humans' expressions said otherwise," Lucifer returned with a smirk, still barely centimeters away from Gabriel's skin.

Gabriel frowned slightly, brow only creasing a touch. Okay, sure. Over the past few months, Gabriel had _sometimes_ liked to pull a gag or two, and _sometimes_ said gags involved being a bit… _handsy_ with Lucifer. Now, to be fair, Lucifer hadn't cared one way or the other because _he_ knew that Gabriel was just pranking Sam and Dean (whose reactions were absolutely hilarious). Gabriel and Lucifer were _close_ , but not like that.

However, at Lucifer's words, it occurred to Gabriel that the gestures could have easily been taken the wrong way. Gabriel was also reminded that he had thought it'd be a great idea to pull one of those gags while the guests were around. It hadn't been anything major – he'd just been a bit physically closer to Lucifer than what would be normal by human standards.

Humans liked to assume things that weren't necessarily correct. Unsavory things. _That was a smooth way of putting it_ , a somewhat irritated and disgruntled part of Gabriel thought to himself. "So? Not my fault if their heads are in the gutter."

That smirk turned subtly wolfish. "Obviously they weren't the only ones in the gutter. Takes one to know one," he teased.

An amber eyed glare was sent Lucifer's way along with a halfhearted shove. "Rude," Gabriel huffed, stepping towards the giant oak tree. "Besides! _You're_ the one who went along with it all. You're just as guilty as me."

"Does that make us _partners_ in crime?" Lucifer chuckled as he slowly followed the other.

"Well, duh, _brother_ ," Gabriel shot back in the same amused tone, mimicking the emphasis on a specific word.

He inclined his head upward to look at the top of the tree. It was a massive thing – had to be at least a couple hundred years old. That being said, it was doing pretty well. Gabriel figured it would still be alive for another hundred years as long as no one tried to cut it down. If it managed to get past those hundred years, it would have a long, long life ahead of it. All of this was considered within the matter of a second.

Gabriel turned to face Lucifer, who was standing a couple feet away from him now. "I'm not even going to try to be discreet about this. You know why we're out here, Lucifer."

"I know," Lucifer sighed in agreement. "I'm not quite sure where to start."

"How about when you disappeared for over half the day while we were all at Disney World," Gabriel suggested, tone flat to cover any emotion that came with the words. That, however, showed his hand more than whatever heat could have been applied.

"That's a bit hard to explain—" Lucifer started to mutter before he got cut off.

"I don't care," Gabriel snapped, crossing his arms. "Just tell me what happened."

Lucifer's stance stiffened. Tension filled the space between them, and the distance that had been growing over the past two weeks suddenly grew even larger. "Gabriel, I can't just—"

"You can't." Gabriel let out a harsh scoff, uncrossing his arms to throw them up in the air before letting them drop back down to his sides, shaking his head. "Of course you can't. You know what? Fine! I was going to stand here and wait until you told me what the hell happened, but apparently _you can't_."

As Gabriel began to stalk off back to the Bunker (because he really needed to let of some steam right now and just flying back would put him in contact with other people too soon), he felt a wave of guilt and regret crash over him from Lucifer's side of their bond.

" _No_ ," he hissed, spinning on his heel to point a finger at his older brother. "You do _not_ get to win me back over the bond you neglected for weeks. I asked you what was wrong! Sam told me about your blackouts. I had to hear about them from the one person in the Bunker that still kind of holds a grudge against you."

A gust of frigid air blasted through the clearing, whipping their clothes around them and ripping any remaining leaves off of the branches they clung to. Amber eyes had turned dark gold as their owner's fury simmered just below the point of eruption.

"You wanna know what hurt even more? The fact that it had to be Mary who convinced us to talk. _What happened_ , Lucifer? We were fine until two weeks ago. What changed?"

Neither of them acknowledged the crack in Gabriel's voice. One too furious to care; the other too shamed to notice.

" _You need to calm down,_ " a soothing voice whispered in his head.

It had been a good long while since Gabriel had heard Bennett. There had been one or two times when he could feel their difference in choice, but this had to be the first time the kid had spoken up since Gabriel had Lucifer had reconciled five months ago. Still, he trusted that part of himself to know what it was saying. Talk about a voice of reason.

But instead of stopping and taking a deep breath, Gabriel gave Lucifer one last furious look before flying far, far away.

 **~o-O-o~**

The man took in a deep breath before opening the door to the warehouse. Inside looked almost exactly like the original. A second man glanced curiously at the first when he paused in the entryway.

"Is there something wrong?"

The first man blinked rapidly, coming out of his daze. "No, no. Just... memories..."

"Good or bad?"

The first man – who was slighter in frame than the other – cast his gaze over to his colleague. "What do you mean?" he inquired.

"Well, considering you were almost killed last time you were in a setting such as this... Good or bad memories?"

Steel grey eyes looked back to the spacious room before them. "Neither."

 **~o-O-o~**

It wasn't unusual for the Bunker to be silent at this time of night. Nor was it unusual for any of the Bunker's inhabitants to be awake at any given time of the day. These two statements contradicted each other, and yet they both still held true. At two in the morning, while the western world was fast asleep, four occupants of the Bunker were wide awake and sending messages to one another from their respective rooms.

Dean (2:12 AM): _But we shouldn't worry about it though right?_

Mary (2:14 AM): _That's the problem. Maybe we aren't worried enough._

Sam (2:15 AM): _They had a fight. It happens to everyone. Still…_

Dean (2:18 AM): _Come on Sammy. Don't hold out_

Castiel (2:21 AM): _Gabriel has yet to return from wherever he flew off to. While it is not overly concerning considering his nature, it would be best if they tried to talk their issues out again, though perhaps with a firmer hand in persuading them to finish their discussion._

Dean (2:22 AM): _So like we did with Chuck and Luce?_

Sam (2:23 AM): _Since when do you call him "Luce"?_

Dean (2:23 AM): _It's faster to spell than Lucifer_

Mary (2:24 AM): _What do you mean like with Chuck and Lucifer?_

Castiel (2:26 AM): _Sam and Dean had to arrange a meeting between Lucifer and God in order for the two to work together against Amara._

Castiel (2:26 AM): _It worked, though Sam and Dean were excluded from the end of the conversation._

Dean (2:27 AM): _That's a nice way of putting it_

Mary (2:27 AM): _Do you think it would work between Gabriel and Lucifer?_

Castiel (2:29 AM): _Perhaps._

Sam (2:32 AM): _We can't expect for them to even talk at this rate. They don't /want/ to talk to each other._

Sam (2:33 AM): _With Chuck and Lucifer, they both agreed to talk civilly because they both wanted to have the conversation._

Dean (2:35 AM): _Gabe and Luce both agreed to talk_

Castiel (2:36 AM): _But no one was there to keep either of them from storming off._

Mary (2:39 AM): _So do we all agree that we need to get them to try again?_

Dean (2:41 AM): _Sure why the hell not_

Castiel (2:42 AM): _I believe another attempt is needed._

Mary (2:44 AM): _Sam?_

Sam (2:48 AM): _Fine_

Dean (2:50 AM): _Cool, now that that's settled Goodnight_

Castiel (2:51 AM): _Good night._

Sam (2:51 AM): _Yeah, goodnight_

Mary (2:52 AM): _See you all in the morning._

But none of the Bunker's human residents were able to sleep that night as they tossed and turned in their beds. The minds of each were filled with thoughts of the looming conversation that they would have to enforce on their archangelic roommates. The lone angel quietly left his room to seek out the only other angelic being within the concrete walls.

Lucifer had not taken Gabriel's departure well. Day and night were spent waiting near the Bunker's entrance. Several days had already passed by, and December would soon replace November.

It's a shame that each of those days sent Lucifer hurtling closer to the edge.

 **~o-O-o~**

"So I guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow, then?" the woman asked him with a warm smile.

He returned the smile and nodded. "Sure, just ask and I'll be there." He finally let out a soft sigh as she walked out of view. Dealing with Bennett's mother was a bit difficult.

"Smooth, _Richard_."

Gabriel refrained from jumping out of his skin at a girl's voice. "Shit, kid," he breathed out, turning to face the young girl. "Don't do that, you'll give someone a heart attack."

"I don't think you can get heart attacks," she responded after a pause.

"It's an expression."

She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "Well, duh. I know _that_ , Mr. Archangel."

Gabriel was inwardly grateful that no one else was around right then because he did not need Gabriel Bennett's little sister back talking him for being an ancient being of celestial powers. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes at her.

"We got let out half an hour ago," she informed him.

He checked his internal clock. It was almost four in the afternoon now. "Oh."

"Yeah," Lucilia huffed, uncrossing her arms and looking past him at her house. "So… you wanna tell me why you're here? Last time I saw you, you implied that I wouldn't see you again unless I called or something."

Gabriel could sense that she wasn't trying to be rude or anything. He had noticed from the couple of times that he'd watched her from afar that she was… different. A bit less outgoing but still cheerful around her friends and family. Still his little sister.

"I was just making sure you two moved in okay," he said as an excuse. He was here for that, sure. But he was there for… other things too.

Lucilia seemed to take that as a decent enough answer though. "I liked my birthday present," she said abruptly after a brief lull in their conversation.

"You caught that, huh?" he remarked with a soft, sheepish chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well, it wasn't like it was hard to figure out. I have a dorky, older than dirt, mighty weapon of Heaven who was my human big brother for a guardian angel," she pointed out, for all the world acting like she was only discussing the weather.

Gabriel smiled while holding back a frown. "I'm dorky?"

Lucilia's laugh was music to his ears. It was refreshing and exactly what he needed right now. He was soothing his mind in several ways. One of which involved invoking joy in his human side. After all of his earlier frustrations, it was nice to just revel in the opposite of all _that_.

They talked long into the evening, Lucilia having to take her dinner to her room so that they could continue their conversation without interruption. They talked about how Lucilia was doing in school (not that Gabriel didn't already know) and how she was still adjusting to living without her brother around. They talked about what it was like for Gabriel to live in the Bunker with his brothers and the Winchesters. They even talked about her newfound interest in art – specifically drawing.

"You'll be a da Vinci in no time," he remarked, looking down at one of her more recent sketches.

Lucilia blushed a little in modesty but took the compliment as it was. Then curiosity burned in her eyes. "Did you get to meet Leonardo da Vinci?"

"Where do you think he got his fascination of flight from?" he asked back with a smirk, slowly flipping through the drawings she had handed him and pausing whenever one caught his eye.

"Um… birds?" she responded, questioning her own answer – though they both knew she was teasing him. Lucilia's lips twitched into a smile at Gabriel's mock offense, and then a pondering expression took hold. "Do… do angels have wings?"

"Well, yeah— I mean… why d'ya ask?" Gabriel fumbled over his answer.

With a sparkle in her eyes, Lucilia reached over and turned a couple more pages over. Gabriel's hands stilled as he looked upon the image on the paper. It was of him. And he had golden wings behind him.

"Damn, I'm hot," he remarked after a couple minutes of him staring at the drawing had passed.

Lucilia giggled at the compliment.

Another hour or so went by before she started getting sleepy, her head lolling onto his shoulder before popping back up as she tried to stay awake. They had moved to her bed, and Gabriel had taken up position beside her with his arm around her shoulders as they looked through the rest of her drawings and sketches. A warm smile crossed his lips the moment he noticed her falling asleep.

"You should talk to him…" she mumbled when he tucked her in.

He froze at the comment, his hands still resting on either side of her tired form. And then he was moving again, though only repositioning himself to the side of the bed housing the darling girl so he could tuck her in. A heavy sigh left his lips. "I know."

And he did. He knew what he had to do – whether he liked it or not. "I know."

* * *

 **A/N: Hey! I'm not dead… But, yeah, school's started. It's going pretty well, so that's good. How have you guys been? I imagine that you're all kind of mad at me for being slow to update. To be honest, this was supposed to get posted like a week ago but then it was a busy week in school and excuses that I'm sure you guys don't care to hear...**

 **(Also, if you want to believe that Lucilia is, like, the best artist ever, then look up 'Gabriel fanart wings', pick the one you like the most and imagine that one as the one Lucilia drew.)**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

* * *

 **Avenage99:** I only brought Garth back because Thanksgiving (in my family anyway) was one of those holidays where _everyone_ got together to celebrate, and in season 12 you see that Garth is technically still alive, so I thought it'd be a cool little cameo for him. And about that Borderlands fic, I haven't posted it yet but that's because I was thinking about making a real story out of it, but then I looked at all of the fics I'm working on already and thought it'd be fine to leave it as it is. So it should be posted sooner or later.

 **teabrows:** I really don't mind answering any of your questions or sharing other people's works that I liked. And if I don't answer a question in one of these 'little' responses, then an answer will probably pop up in the fic somewhere.


	6. Come What May

**Chapter 5**

 **Come What May**

It had gone horribly. _Of course_ it had.

A full week had passed since Gabriel had flown off. To Dean, that was moderately understandable. Besides, who was he to criticize the guy for needing a bit of space to blow off some steam built up from family tensions? Still, Gabriel's vanishing act hadn't been very good for the other archangel in their household.

Lucifer had gotten snappish, which actually wasn't all that uncommon for whenever Gabriel wasn't around. This time around, however, Lucifer was also… unstable. Dean had already had that feeling that their dear pal Lucifer wasn't completely stable in the first place considering his _familial issues_ _–_ which Dean knew about first hand from having them over the years (though Lucifer's were on a much larger scale than Dean's).

Now Dean had been fine with Lucifer being a little off his rocker about Gabriel not coming back to the Bunker after three days (seriously though, it started to freak everyone out around the five day mark; Gabriel was just _never_ gone for longer than about five days since the two archangels moved into the Bunker). However, what wasn't cool was when Lucifer started lashing out. Mary had to break up what would have become a fight between her sons and Lucifer over the simple fact that there was no point in going out to find Gabriel if Gabriel didn't want to be found.

Both Mary and Cas had been able to talk Lucifer down from leaving the Bunker to go find Gabriel (they all needed Lucifer to stay if they wanted their plan of make the two talk to work). Lucifer was placated for a little while, and they were able to distract him with a bit of quick thinking and the massive TV that Gabriel had left in the Bunker that still miraculously worked without even being connected to any sort of wires.

Then Gabriel showed up. You would have thought tension in the Bunker would have lessened a bit, but _no_. Not only did Gabriel fail to release the tension, but he also managed to increase it.

Oh God, who goes by the name Chuck, what the hell did they do to deserve this shit-fest?

Dean would strangle that stupid, short, candy-loving SOB if he could.

Cas and Mary had managed to convince Lucifer to have the sit down with Gabriel, who Sam and Dean easily tempted into the same area. The two brothers had stared each other down until Gabriel finally said:

"I have nothing to say to you."

Lucifer had taken that like a slap to the face. "Gabriel…" the older archangel started, trailing off into a silent conversation with the younger that none of the humans nor the other angel could hear, but the two's facial expressions said enough.

Dean could see the way Lucifer grew more desperate as Gabriel's anger furthered, and Gabriel seemed to notice too, which only made him even more mad for some reason. Somehow Dean knew that they were still skirting around the real subject they had been sat down for. And then Gabriel put it out there for everyone to hear.

"Oh, but that's nothing at all like lying to me about what was going," he spat, presumably responding to something Lucifer had said over their bond. "And don't even think about arguing the point. You lied by omission!"

Dean inwardly winced as Lucifer recoiled. "Gabriel, you wouldn't understand—"

Gabriel let out a notable growl. "I stormed off that night so a fight wouldn't break out, but so help me Dad, if you start with that BS, I will drag you to the Arctic and pin your wings to the North Pole."

It went on like that, spit-fire words being snapped between the two – though Gabriel's had a bit more heat to them while Lucifer seemed somewhat resigned to the words. And then (thank Chuck for small miracles) just like that, everything was fine. Okay, well not _fine_ fine, but still way better than it had been five minutes beforehand.

"I'm sorry, Gabriel…"

The younger archangel's glare softened the slightest bit, and as Lucifer continued his apology, Gabriel looked off to the side, his gaze hazing somewhat. Dean could practically see the gears in his head turning as he considered something.

"You mean that," he muttered.

It wasn't a question.

Dean suddenly felt the conversation become very, very intimate. It was one of those feelings that came right before something life changing was said. But apparently archangels didn't always have to abide to tropes. Nothing was said, and silence filed the room.

The quiet lull was thick with suspense, but it was soon broken by Gabriel suddenly standing. He glanced over to Dean for a brief millisecond before flicking his eyes back to Lucifer. Again the two shared a few internal words, and then Gabriel's head tilted to the side in a silent question to which Lucifer responded with a quick nod.

And that was that.

Gabriel had left with a satisfied smirk on his face, and Lucifer slouched into his chair with a certain form of relief. The rest of them either stared at the retreating figure of Gabriel or the collapsed form of Lucifer.

Later, when it was just Sam in the room with Dean, the older Winchester brother let the younger in on his thoughts. If the two archangels were any example, then this conversation was going to happen one way or the other. Of course, that didn't mean that Dean couldn't make it as exclusively between them as possible.

"It's happened to us, Dean," Sam said after Dean had told him what was worrying him.

"Yeah, but we're us..." Dean huffed. "We figure it out eventually."

Sam gave him a look before shaking his head. "And that's what happened with them. They got over whatever it was that Lucifer was keeping from Gabriel."

Dean frowned. He had a gut feeling that this was far from over. He told Sam as much.

Sam's response began with a heavy sigh. "I know what you mean, but we're not really in a position to do anything that can help."

"That's never stopped us before," Dean protested.

"You're not wrong," Sam muttered, looking away for a minute and then looking back to his brother. "But the most we can do right now is wait for the next fallout and be ready to pick up the pieces."

Dean really didn't like that answer.

 **~o-O-o~**

Gabriel hesitated a moment before rapping a soft knock on Mary's door. The mother Winchester looked up from the book she was reading at the sound. She looked somewhat surprised to see him, which was understandable. Gabriel wasn't usually the one who came to her (no, that was Lucifer more often than not).

Still, it wasn't like Gabriel ignored her presence or anything. Technically, he and Mary were on pretty decent terms – especially after he sat down and talked with her about everything. It had turned into a rather philosophical conversation that he hadn't been expecting from her, but it was still enjoyable for him. It wasn't often that he got to pick a human's brain about their opinions of the universe and what not, which was suddenly much more relatable now that he had his own experiences to go by.

So when Mary sought him out several days ago in order to plant the seed of the idea that he should talk to Lucifer on that Thanksgiving night, he had considered her words carefully before making up his mind. And then when she was one of the ones to convince him to try again, he had listened. This time he was helping out by being the one to seek her out first.

"You got a minute or two?" he asked, albeit a touch awkwardly.

And, hey, Gabriel didn't usually go to others for help. For a very long time in his life (specifically the archangelic one), he had been by himself, a loner. It was nice – not being alone anymore – but he could (reluctantly) admit that he was still getting a bit used to the feeling.

It was a wondrous feeling, too. It was magnificent and awesome, and no one should ever have to go through never being able to know the emotions that come with it. It was, however, unfortunate that some had to face and deal with the loss of the feeling. He could only hope that none of the people he considered family now would have to experience such loss (again).

"Yeah," Mary replied amicably, ready and willing to help in whatever way she could. "What's up?"

"I, uh— I was wondering if you knew anything about the Moirai," he started slowly, battling any lingering sense of hesitation and smothering it. "They're one of the different groups of Fates, and I figured since you've teamed up with Sam to read through the Men of Letters' notes on that kind of stuff…"

"That I might have read something that would help you out?" Mary finished when he trailed off. Gabriel nodded. "I'm not sure how much I can help _you_ , but was there anything in particular you wanted to know?"

Gabriel glance back at the hallway, making sure it was empty, before stepping into the room and closing the door. "What do you know about their contracts?"

 **~o-O-o~**

Sam wasn't being... wary of the two resident archangels. No, he liked to think of it more as simply consciously cautious of their moods. The two were certainly on better terms now that Lucifer had apologized to Gabriel for whatever he'd done. (Though, to be honest, Sam didn't think it that Lucifer was completely sure about what he'd apologized for.)

But Sam really couldn't help the way he managed to leave the room whenever either of them showed up. He'd always stick around just long enough to make his escapes inconspicuous, and the others didn't say anything about it. Still, Gabriel must have taken notice.

Apparently, it didn't take long for the archangel to figure out a way to keep Sam from leaving before they could talk. Sam and Gabriel didn't exactly see eye to eye. Sure, he was fine with Gabriel – Sam didn't not like him or anything, but they weren't the best of friends either. That being said, Sam was not happy about being backed into a corner by a determined archangel.

"Heya, Sammy-kins," the archangel beamed cheerfully, moving over towards him, easily blocking the exit. "You've been avoiding me."

Sam fought the urge to look away, though he did scoot back in his chair a bit. "Not you," he responded warily.

"No," Gabriel both agreed and disagreed. "Just me _and Lucifer_. Which I get— really, I do… But I need you to do me a favor."

"A favor?" Sam questioned with a half scoff. He was slightly (okay, a bit more than _slightly_ ) worried about what Gabriel might want. The youngest-archangel/Trickster wasn't one to just ask for favors.

"Well, you see," Gabriel began with an odd chuckle. "I've got a job for you. There's a nest of vampires making their way through Washington State."

Sam frowned. That… was not what he was expecting. And Sam wasn't sure where exactly Gabriel Bennett's little sister was, but he remembered the archangel moving her to some little town in… _Wait a minute_ — "Why didn't you just take care of them?"

"I noticed that you guys don't have anything to do nowadays, so I thought this would be a great opportunity for you and your brother and mother to go on a hunting trip," the archangel replied flippantly.

"You make it sound like we're just going out to the woods," Sam deadpanned, frown deepening.

Gabriel shrugged a shoulder. "If you just wanted to camp in the woods, I would recommend the backyard. I could hide a dead body out there the human way, and no one would know."

"Don't make this weird, Gabriel."

"But you're so easy to tease!"

Sam let out a huff of irritation. At least Gabriel wasn't asking him to ask Crowley to let Gabriel borrow one of his hellhounds so that Gabriel could make a chocolate model of it. Suffice to say, Gabriel had actually asked that of them before. (Crowley had flatly refused.) That didn't make this any better (well, actually it kind of was— fine, it was _a lot_ better).

"That's not why you want us to go," Sam stated.

Gabriel made a face, probably because Sam was right. "So? Just go. Cassie can hold down the fort. Everything'll be fine."

 _Right_ , Sam inwardly scoffed. The first thing wrong with that statement was that nothing was ever just fine; more often than not, something was not-right. Secondly, Sam didn't think that leaving Gabriel and Lucifer alone was a good idea. It was more than likely that the two archangels would ditch Castiel as soon as the others were gone. The only reason they hadn't taken off already was because Mary had asked that they stay in the Bunker for a little while longer – mostly to make sure that any tensions had been smoothed over.

"Are you trying to get rid of us by sending us on a hunt?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

Gabriel let out an affronted noise that Sam didn't really know how to describe. "What?! _No_ … Okay, yes. Yes, I am."

Well that answered that.

But Sam still didn't understand why Gabriel would want them gone now of all times. It had barely been a week since they had talked it out, and, really, everyone could tell that there was still some lingering tension between the two archangels. Sam could grasp the possible reasons pertaining to Gabriel wanting to be alone with Lucifer for a while, but it simply wasn't a good idea to leave them by themselves yet.

A part of Sam reasoned with himself that Gabriel and Lucifer were big boys who could talk to each other without blowing up the planet, and yet another part of him argued that it was just as likely that they become the stars of the next apocalypse.

Okay, so maybe Sam could understand why Gabriel wanted to have them gone for a while – which was to get some time alone with Lucifer (again, not that Sam thought it was a good idea). Reasonably, Gabriel knew that not everything was square between himself and Lucifer, but with the Winchesters and Castiel constantly around, it would be difficult to have the long and _private_ conversation that was warranted, one in which talking over a bond probably wouldn't suffice. The two needed to actually _talk_ , and it had to be without the distraction of three humans and another angel.

"Fine," Sam finally replied. "I'll make sure we leave by tomorrow morning, and I'll even ask Cas to come, too. But if you want me to keep this little chat to myself, you're going to have to answer a question."

Gabriel's eyes narrowed for a brief moment before his expression fell back into its usual carefree manner. "Ask away, Sammy-boy."

"Why'd you ask Mom about the Moirai?"

The archangel quite notably stiffened at the question. Something that Sam vaguely recognized flashed through Gabriel's amber eyes. It worried the human – those were not the kind of emotions that Sam wanted to be seeing in those eyes.

"It's none of your business, Sam."

No nickname. Yup, Sam just stepped into some serious shit. _Abort! Abort!_ But, no, this was Sam freaking Winchester. He wasn't about to back down because he pushed a wrong button. "You didn't answer the question."

Gold burned into the amber. "Drop it, Sam."

"That bad, huh?" Sam let out a sigh.

Figures that it would be on levels of importance that forewarned shit on the apocalyptic scale. Well, okay, maybe apocalyptic was over-exaggerating a little, but one never really knew when it came to archangels. And as much as Sam still wanted to push for an answer, he had the feeling that doing so would gain him nothing. So he went with the option that would hopefully lead to Gabriel eventually telling him what was wrong.

"You didn't exactly answer my question," Sam started, gauging Gabriel's stiff reaction with observant eyes. "But I'll keep this to myself— for now. Anything goes wrong, and I'm telling everyone about your suggestion to go to Washington."

The archangel's entire demeanor seemed to relax at that. "Deal."

"Don't say that," Sam groaned.

Gabriel only laughed.

 **~o-O-o~**

The new base was outfitted with everything the old one had and more. However, for the moment, it was just the two of them manning it. And while they were running the base rather smoothly for a pieced together office space made of storage units, it was still only the two of them. It didn't help that one of them wasn't as suited for field work as the other – they couldn't both handle some of the… missions they were sent on while also taking care of the base.

"Something troubling you again?"

Grey eyes flickered up to the other. "What makes you ask?"

A wolfish grin crossed the other's face for a brief moment before it gave way to the closest the other's smile could get to genuine. "So there is something wrong," he mused. "The deflection was a dead giveaway."

"I already told you, I don't have the best memories of a situation not unlike this," the first replied with an edge in his voice. He let out a sigh, rubbing some of the sleep from his eyes.

"As long as you don't let it get in the way of our work, I don't really care," the other said with a sniff and a twitch of his mouth after a moment. "What of our… reinforcements?"

Those grey eyes, lighter than the shade of the other's own eyes, looked down at the papers laying beside the typewriter on his desk. "I don't even know if they're coming."

"Typical," the other scoffed. "The Old Men must think we can handle ourselves, don't they? We'll have to prove them right."

The more scholarly of the two didn't voice his thoughts on the matter. He could leave it to the other to take care of the more... physical problems. He was mainly worried about when it finally came do to clearing away the dust and rubble, that there'd be anything left of them.

After their first failure, it had taken heavy amounts of convincing to even bring the Headmistress to the idea of letting them try again. But the Old Men were also becoming ambitious. They wanted America. And so, America they would get.

* * *

 **A/N: And just to be clear – yes, Lucilia and her mom are in the State of Washington (not Washington, D.C.) along with her cousin's family (they were mentioned in the Prologue and in BMG's chapter 5). Also, plot! So much plot sneaked into this chapter. I couldn't help it.**

 **Also, quick game: Who can figure out first how long it's been from the beginning of BMG to about the end of this chapter? I'd love to see who can get it right XD It tells me you're paying attention to details.**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

* * *

 **Borrowed Silence:** I had a wonderful birthday. Thank you! I finally have a driver's license now, and one of my presents was my parents' old Toyota Tacoma. School is also going well (applications for colleges are a bit stressful though, to be honest). _And_ I was able to pass my driver's road test, so now I also have a driver's license.


	7. Torment Me, Calm Me, Hurt Me

**Chapter 6**

 **Torment Me, Calm Me, Hurt Me**

They were getting worse. The blackouts – if one could even label them as just that anymore.

It wasn't right. Ignoring the fact that they shouldn't have even been happening, they were starting to cause… problems. The blackouts were getting longer, first of all. Then there were the things that he was doing during those blank holes in his memory.

Sam had been the first victim of this consequence. Beforehand, Lucifer remembered combing through several texts in his room, and then suddenly he was in the library with a hand on his shoulder. Instincts had taken over, and the rest was history. What Lucifer didn't understand was how ( _and when_ ) he had gotten to the library.

At that point in time, and excluding the initial event, Lucifer hadn't ever moved during one of his blackouts (the three of them that he could identify). So when he realized that he had in fact moved, a gnawing monster of worry – _not fear, he couldn't let it get to him that much_ – settled in his chest. And while the next two blackouts weren't nearly as heart-stopping as the one that left him in the library, he couldn't help but feel a creeping anxiety about what might happen next time.

Then he and Gabriel had a falling out.

He hadn't— he hadn't even registered what had happened until well after Gabriel had stormed off. Lucifer had been on the verge of a breakdown, only barely keeping it together... _and he hated it._

He was Lucifer – the second oldest being in all of Creation, the first of His sons to finally say _no_ to Him, the Tempter, Satan, bringer of the Apocalypse— Did he need to go on? This shouldn't have been happening to him.

The Fates: They were the only thing that he could trace this all back to. It all started with them. He had given in and told Gabriel so… though without telling Gabriel the full extent that it was affecting him. Gabriel must have known Lucifer wasn't telling him everything, but the younger archangel simply nodded and went off on his own search for answers.

By now they were only holding everything together with the makings of a shoddy truce. Neither was telling the other the whole truth – especially not to the other residents of the Bunker, even as willing as they were to help. But then Gabriel had sent them all away. It just the two of them to do as they would, and hopefully they would spend that time talking their troubles out.

What Sam and Dean and Mary and Castiel wouldn't know was that Lucifer and Gabriel didn't in fact _talk their troubles out_ while the others were gone – over their bond or aloud. This, however, wasn't as bad a thing as some might think. You see, while Gabriel left Lucifer in the Bunker once more, it was in search of knowledge that they had yet to find within the Bunker's vast stores of information. Lucifer agreed to continue looking through the Bunker's archives, as fruitless as it was already seeming, and Gabriel tracked down some of his… friends.

 **~o-O-o~**

Gabriel was going to throw up. Ugh— if he had to go through one more Dad-forsaken swamp… Oh, _ew_ — was that— what kind of slime glowed? And why was it sticking to his hair?! Ew! No, just _no_. No, nonononono. And now it was soaking through his shirt, which was starting to freeze against his skin because of the subzero temperature around him…

Gabriel felt like he might cry tears of frustration, or maybe revulsion. This was absolutely disgusting! Okay, so maybe if he were still just an archangel and his human half wasn't acting up, he could stop being so squeamish. And it really, _really_ didn't help that one of his past human lives had a thing against swamps and slime and the things in the water that could totally eat you whole if they wanted to.

 _No_ _—_ _don't even start thinking about that._

Just focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

Why the hell did Baba Yaga have to move her stupid hut thing to the coldest wetlands on Earth? Why couldn't she have just gone somewhere nice and relatively dry and not so cold? Sure, Russia wasn't exactly known for its warm weather, but come on!

And that wasn't the worst thing— no, no. The worst part was that the old hag had warded that stupid walking hut of hers so that he couldn't just fly or teleport in. That was the reason he was wading through the algae and slime infested waters to get there. He would have been completely fine if he could've just flown in. But _no_ , he had to find her house the hard way!

Stupid cold water. Stupid glow-y slime. Stupid swamp. Stupid house that looked kinda like a chicken because it literally stood on chicken legs. Stupid old witch who may or may not have the information he wanted.

His next step landed his foot into a section of water much deeper than the surrounding shallows. "Oh, what now?" he groaned, feeling his foot slowly sinking into the silt.

Gabriel tried yanking his leg out of the water. It budged maybe a centimeter. Shit, he was stuck.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," he growled with no small amount of frustration.

And then something especially slimy snaked around the ankle of his stuck leg.

A bemused noise escaped his lips. Oh, this was so not funny. This wasn't within a hundred miles of okay. He was not about to get swept away by some tentacle monster! He'd had some weird sexual fantasies (some of which he may or may not have explored) during his long run as a trickster, but he had made an agreement with all parts of himself that he was _not going there again_ (for very innocent reasons, mind you). And _never once_ did he _ever_ have the urge to get it on _with tentacles!_

The thing wrapped snugly around his ankle squeezed the joint once. That was Gabriel's only warning before his feet were pulled out from under him and he was sent crashing into the endless water around him. As he was swiftly dragged through the water, Gabriel supposed that now was as good a time as any to thank his Dad for not needing to actually breathe. The tentacle thing was not being particularly gentle, and Gabriel's head hit the ground beneath the water more than he cared to have his head get hit with whatever the hell was at the bottom of a swamp.

Oh, and Gabriel knew exactly who was behind it all, which was currently the only reason why he was just letting the tentacle drag him to where he would most likely meet up with Baba Yaga.

The very moment that the tentacle let go of Gabriel's ankle, the archangel flew himself to the nearest dry spot of land and rid himself of any swamp related gunk that coated his body. Several disgusted shivers racked his frame as he shook off the phantom feel of slime and tentacles. A chuckle (if you could call it that; to be honest, it sounded more like ragged coughing) sounded behind him, and Gabriel paused in his jerkish movements.

Slowly turning on his heel, he let a suave smile plaster his face. "Baba Yaga, pleasure to see you again," he greeted, not letting the strain in his voice become noticeable.

"Volos," that old, hoarse voice replied in Baba Yaga's native tongue – her dark, beady eyes glimmering with a black humor, "or should I say Loki, or perhaps Gavril? Either way, it has been a long time."

Gabriel held back a wince. Okay, maybe meeting up with a millennia old witch, who more than likely had a grudge against him for his mere existence, probably wasn't the best of ideas. "Yeah, a couple hundred years… give or take."

"Come now, Trickster. I know you're not here for simple pleasantries," Baba Yaga crooned, striking the wooden end of her broom twice against the ground and summoning her chicken hut.

The hut itself was large enough to house at least three people at any given time, but put on the chicken legs, it looked almost twice as big, especially while looking up at it from the ground. Sure, Gabriel had seen larger and cooler structures in his life (as well as having seen it the one time he'd spoken with Baba Yaga beforehand), but sometimes you just have to appreciate a hut with the enlarged legs of a chicken.

He would have absolutely loved to use his own version of the house in some trick or another, but sadly, he'd never found anyone to use it properly against. Maybe he could sic a tiny one on Sam and Dean while it was just them in the Bunker as a practical joke (though Gabriel didn't feel like Castiel or Mary would find it funny). Their reactions would be hilarious. Right, he made a mental note to do it eventually.

When the hut finally arrived (its imminent presence not even close to being subtle as it moved through the swamp), it crouched down to let them inside. Baba Yaga entered her home without bothering to wave him inside, so he simply followed, taking note of any horrifying details he could exaggerate whenever he made the miniature version of it.

Inside the hut wasn't nearly as eerie or mysterious as the outside and was actually rather homey. There was a small fire was burning in the stove, heating the room and probably the rest of the house since he was pretty sure she was using a spell to keep out the cold. What qualified as Baba Yaga's living room had old tomes strewn about the place – some open, some closed and stacked upon one another – and a few plants in pots on the window sill with only the flickering fire and the natural light from outside to brighten the room.

Gabriel took one look at the sofa and decided that he could just stand.

Turning his gaze back to the old witch, who was doing something in her kitchen, he noticed that she didn't look as old as she used to. She had gotten rid of some of her wrinkles and turned her hair from its previous coarse white to a smooth silver. Her dark colored eyes still sort of gave him the creeps. At least she didn't have warts on her nose anymore, and that crooked tooth that used to be very visible even with her mouth closed was gone.

He supposed that with her almost absolute isolation out here in the swamp, she didn't need to distort her features to scare people off and so she let her natural features take hold. If anything, Gabriel could easily see her as that wise, old grandmother who wasn't necessarily mean but wasn't very nice either – letting you figure things out after giving you a cryptic message to decipher on your own. (Hmm, who did that remind him of?)

Gabriel shook his head of the thoughts, bringing himself back to the present as Baba Yaga set down her mortar and pestle along with several dried herbs down on a clear space on a table across from him. He vaguely recognized two of the flowers as saffron and St. John's wort, and he was like seventy-five percent sure that one of the sticks might have been from a Jamaica Dogwood. And… were those oats she already had in the mortar?

Baba Yaga began grinding the grain into a fine dust, ignoring his questioning stare. Soon enough, she asked him: "Well? What brings you here, Trickster?"

"I came in search of answers," he replied, being mindful of his words. Baba Yaga was a bit of a trickster herself, twisting responses back onto the recipient or just altogether avoiding a straight answer.

"And what answers do you seek, hmm?" she murmured. Four saffron flower heads were added into the mix, slowly getting ground down into a powder.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes at the mixture but looked back up at her to voice his question. "What do you know of the Greco-Roman Fates?"

"I know several things about the Moirai. What do you wish to know?"

"Everything you can tell me," he answered as a root of valerian was put into the mortar only to be ground under the weight of the stone pestle.

A wicked grin crossed Baba Yaga's face before she began to tell him all she knew of the three Fates and what happened to those who crossed them. It was from her that Gabriel learned of the troubles that came with leaving a deal unclosed as well as the power someone could have over another if they took over the offering side without letting the other know, as what usually happened in most 'open deal' cases.

Gabriel had an idea of what was affecting his brother. Now he just needed to know who had taken over the Moirai's end of the deal. It would also have been more than helpful to know how to break the deal or at least close it without any bad repercussions. But that wasn't something that Baba Yaga knew.

Still, Gabriel could leave with at least something, which was better than nothing.

Stepping out onto the porch, Gabriel noticed that Baba Yaga had moved the hut while she'd been talking. He turned, wanting to give the witch his thanks and tell her farewell, when suddenly a cloud of something was sprayed at his face. Choking on the herbal scented concoction from the action of inhaling on human habit, Gabriel tried to expel the powder from his lungs to no avail.

He was still coughing as the world began to blur around him, the edges of his vision going dark. Baba Yaga gave him a somewhat apologetic smile before pushing him off of her porch with the end of her broom. A brief thought occurred to him as he fell, water swallowing him into its icy yet shallow depths.

If he really wanted to know how to close Lucifer's deal, he would have to go the three beings who were closest to the Moirai.

And then, the world went black.

 **~o-O-o~**

Lucifer looked up to see Gabriel stomping down the Bunker's entry stairs with an angry scowl marring his face. The older archangel was pretty sure that he hadn't done anything recently to piss Gabriel off, and that was including his most recent black out. He had been alone in the Bunker when it happened after all. So Gabriel had to be mad about something that occurred while he'd been out and about.

"How'd it go?" he asked as casually as he could. Now that Gabriel was closer, Lucifer could see… was that glowing slime in Gabriel's hair? "I'm changing my question. What happened?"

Gabriel glared at Lucifer, but then his scowl softened and Gabriel let out a sigh, weariness washing over their bond. "I got knocked out by a witch, and she dumped me in the swamp she loiters around while I was still out of it."

Lucifer fought a smirk that threatened to form on his lips. "So the fluorescent slime is..?" he started the question, trailing off with a poorly concealed laugh disguised as a cough.

The glare was back. "From some kind of magic discharge the witch's house lets out that made its way into the water. It mixed with the algae or something and that's why it's green."

"Well, it's not that bad then," Lucifer pointed out, and Gabriel rolled his eyes at him, snapping his fingers to rid himself of the slime and dry off once more. He took a seat in the chair across from Lucifer, who had several books laid out on the table before him. "I assume you learned something."

Gabriel nodded. "But I'm still following a lead that could make this whole thing crystal clear. When are the others getting back?"

"Tomorrow morning at the very latest," Lucifer answered after a moment of thought.

"Crap," Gabriel groaned into his hands as he ran them down his face. "Baba knocked me out longer than I thought."

"Baba?"

Gabriel waved a dismissive hand. "She's this old Slavic witch that can be helpful if she's in a good mood."

"Wait— so she was in a relatively good mood but decided to go ahead and dump you in a swamp anyway?" Lucifer mused.

"Ha ha, laugh it up," Gabriel grouched. "Yes, she was in a good mood. If she hadn't been, I wouldn't have been able to even talk to her."

"And this lead of yours?" Lucifer prompted, steering the conversation to the subject that had Gabriel going out in the first place.

Gabriel frowned for a moment before responding. "If we're still keeping my outings from Sam and Dean, I'm going to need at least a week and a half…"

Lucifer's jaw clenched when he realized Gabriel wasn't going to continue. His little brother had been notably keeping his leads secretive, only telling Lucifer who he'd gone to see _after_ he'd met with his sources (even then, Gabriel would rarely mention their names; Baba Yaga was apparently an exception because of her ability to keep even Gabriel from finding her himself – she had brought him to her after all). Lucifer understood Gabriel's reasoning behind keeping his informants secret.

But there was something about this next 'lead' that was setting Lucifer off. At least a week and a half? Gabriel had barely needed five days with the 'old Slavic witch', and she was supposed to be the hardest to find. Who was Gabriel going to see that he needed a week and a half?

" _Relax, Luci…_ " Gabriel murmured over their bond. Gabriel's voice in Lucifer's mind alone was enough to break the tension building in Lucifer's shoulders. " _It just takes a while getting there. They're not exactly on Earth._ "

Lucifer tilted his head to the side in a silent question. " _Then I guess it's a good thing I've found the Winchesters and Castiel another case. How long do you think it'll take them to figure out there's a will-o'-the-wisp in Massachusetts?_ " he asked, reveling in talking to Gabriel over the bond.

" _Well, that's what? A little over two days of straight driving to get there from Washington State, and well over a day to get to here from Massachusetts. There's half a week right there…_ " Gabriel figured with a shrug.

A sly grin broke across Lucifer's lips. " _And if I don't tell them what they're hunting, you'll get your week and a half._ "

"Perfect," Gabriel said aloud, mirroring Lucifer's grin with one of his own. "Now to just call the Ghostbusters."

 **~o-O-o~**

Gabriel never really did like coming down here. 'Down' being relative to the World Tree, or rather, Yggdrasil. And 'here' being at the roots of Yggdrasil. It was always cold and a bit stuffy and smelled like decaying wood and mist (if you could complain about that last one). Of course, the journey itself wasn't all that bad – just _long_. And he'd had to get say-so from Thor – since Odin was dead, Thor had become the ruler of Asgard – to enter the Norns' domain without getting into any trouble (that had only taken three days, thankfully).

"Greetings, archangel," the smooth voice of Verdandi called to him.

Though perpetually dark on the ground beside the roots of Yggdrasil, Gabriel was still able to make out the middle-aged form of the Norn of Necessity. Her younger sister, Skuld, was standing to Verdandi's left and collecting sand. Urd's crouched figure was somewhat harder to see as she was drawing water from the Well of Fate into an urn.

"You know what I need," he said simply, getting right to the point.

Skuld let out a chuckle that held not a note of amusement. "We've known since it began."

"My sisters resolved the Moirai's attempts at an immediate reset. A poor decision on the Greco-Roman Fates' end," Urd spoke up as she gracefully stood, still holding the urn.

"But Lucifer—"

"What's been done is done," Urd cut him off.

Verdandi gave Gabriel a sympathetic look. "We could only fix what the Moirai messed with. Lucifer made the contract with them of his own violation, whether he fully understood what he was doing or not."

"We can do nothing for him," Skuld concluded.

Gabriel refrained from showing his frustration. Fates and their rules. _Right, just work with them. You'll eventually reach a compromise._ Besides, Gabriel knew the Norns had a soft spot for him… as minor as it was. "What can you do for me?"

"We can give you the means, Gabriel," Verdandi answered.

She waved her hand over a small pool of water that had collected from the mist about them. An image came into being on the surface of the water. Gabriel recognized it as his archangel blade, the one the Winchesters had given back to him a few months ago. The image faded and was replaced with what some would only perceive as pure white, but Gabriel knew it as a version of Lucifer's true form.

He frowned. What were they..?

 _No._

"But you must finish the job yourself," Skuld continued, letting a pinch of sand enter the water.

The white turned black, burning red eyes glowed in the dark puddle. Crimson seeped into the image, and a new image formed, showing a bloody massacre. It changed again, but this time Gabriel couldn't stand to look at it as he realized what it depicted.

"Please, don't make me do this. I— I can't do that to him…" he begged with a stuttered breath, his eyes averted up to look at the Norns.

Urd returned his pained expression. "You've said it yourself, Gabriel. No one makes you do anything."

In unison, the Norns proclaimed: "To complete the contract, the Fallen must Fall."

* * *

 **A/N: Hey, guys... I'm back again... Yay? I struggled with this so much this chapter. You have no idea… Like – it's... ugh… But then I just hit an epiphany or something because I finished it over a short weekend. It made me so happy. Okay, so plot is really getting pushed right now, but it's something. (Also, I notice I totally ignored my own note and put the singular form of the Greek Fates in the last chapter instead of the plural. I have fixed that.)**

 **But seriously, that 'game' from last chapter still stands, though, with this chapter I'd have to add the days from here. Hint: It's over a year now. Like, what do I have to do to get a response nowadays? Do I just leave you guys/gals speechless or something?**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

* * *

 **Avenage99:** Yeah, the chocolate model hellhound was actually an idea stemming from my little sister when I was bouncing ideas off of her. I needed something absolutely absurd but ridiculously hilarious that people could see Gabriel doing, and it just fit so well XD Gabriel and Lucifer are kind of making it back to a stable brotherly relationship, but (spoilers, not really though) something bad is obviously about to happen. Also, I think you'll be happy to know that I've gotten admittance letters from two of the three colleges I've applied to so far :3


	8. Even as You Run Away

**Precursor Note:** **I'm so sorry! I said I would post this like yesterday, but I got distracted and stuff and excuses that you guys don't really care about. But anyway, y** **es, I know I changed the lyrics a bit, but it just kind of fit better if the chapter titles were gender ambiguous, and so I replaced all the '** _ **she**_ **'s with '** _ **you**_ **'s (and then matched the verbal agreement). I guess if you do care about that, then you'll also have noticed that in no way am I putting the chapter titles in order of the lines in the actual song.**

 **Also, I've got some Christmas holiday stuff in here, and if you get offended by any of it… well, sorry, but it is what it is.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

 **Even as You Run Away**

Something was bothering Gabriel, and it was painfully obvious. Both Sam and Dean had asked him what was wrong, and the archangel had brushed them both off. Gabriel wouldn't tell Castiel or Mary what was going on either. Sam also had the faint suspicion that not even Lucifer knew what was driving Gabriel up the walls with anxiety.

He knew it had to do with whatever the two archangels had been up to while they'd kept Sam, Dean, Mary and Castiel away from the Bunker for over two weeks. Lucifer seemed to be doing better, but Sam couldn't say that anyone knew if Lucifer was truly getting better.

From what Sam had observed, the older archangel still had those moments when he just stopped. Then there were the times Sam would reference something he knew Lucifer had been there for just the other day, but Lucifer wouldn't know what Sam was talking about. It was... concerning.

On happier notes, however, a certain holiday season was upon them. Mary and Gabriel were once again conspiring, though some arguments over decorating were loud enough to make it from the kitchen to the game room, where Dean had convinced Sam to watch as he and Castiel co-oped through some multiplayer game or another. While Sam wasn't all that worried about the end result, he did have some concerns on how far his mother and Gabriel would take the seasonal decorating.

"Why does it have to snow? We live in a bunker! Having it snow in here wouldn't make sense—" Mary started to argue.

"So? Who cares? It's snow!" Gabriel cut her off. "I won't let it melt, and the temperature inside this place won't drop below seventy—"

"—Snow in an underground bunker is absurd—"

"—Aesthetics! It'll look cool—"

"—No, it'll mess up the rest of the—"

"—I'm telling you, it won't—"

Sam let out a sigh at their voices, tuning them out in favor of listening to the plot of the video game Dean and Cas were currently playing. Sam had been surprised to find Dean playing _Minecraft_ of all games, but then he learned that it was Castiel who had insisted on playing the (admittedly children-targeted) game. A look from the angel kept Sam from commenting on just how domestic the scene was.

With all of the tension – as settled as some of it seemed to be since their three week field trip – in the Bunker, Sam understood that undue stress wouldn't help anyone, which was just another reason why he didn't tease Dean for playing _Minecraft_ with his best friend. Of course, when Gabriel finally decided to drop by, there were pillows thrown in the archangel's direction for justified reasons. ("Do you not know how to build a house?" – "I'll show you how to build a friggn' house!")

Needless to say, antagonizing Dean hadn't been one of Gabriel's better ideas of the week. However, Sam did have to admit that the giant Christmas tree, which had mysteriously replaced the war room map-table the next day, was a nice touch. Mary was still working on some of her own decorations, but it was starting to look like Gabriel was in charge of the things that she couldn't do by herself – or basically, anything that couldn't be done by human means.

This also meant that by December 23 any room or area frequented by the residents of the Lebanon Men of Letters' Bunker was decorated for the Christmas season, not a square foot left untouched.

Sam had opened the door of his room that morning to find the hallway lined with actual wreaths, and hanging from each of the short strings on the wreaths was a little wooden star or a sterling silver snowflake or a red and white peppermint. On both sides of the hallway, where the wall met the floor, a cloth that closely resembled snow lined the edges along with holly leave clusters, staying away from the middle of the corridor but still making the hallway look holiday worthy.

Gabriel had certainly taken decking the halls seriously.

Sam had to take his statement back once he entered the library.

Gabriel hadn't messed with any of the books or the antiques that were on the shelves, but Sam was pretty sure it wasn't humanly possible to have decorated all of… _this_ within the time Sam had gone to bed and when he'd woken up.

"Hey! Sam-a-lam!" Gabriel called down to him from where he was on the ladder next to the sixteen-foot tall tree. "You like?"

Moving slowly closer as he took it all in, Sam walked over to the tree. "Uh… don't you think this is a bit much?"

"Is it?" Gabriel asked after a pause, looking down at Sam once he had properly looped the white tinsel around the large tree. "Mary said it looked great."

Sam was suddenly reminded of the fact that he and Dean hadn't ever really had the best examples of what most Christmas holidays were like. It was now occurring to him that while, yes, last Christmas with just him, Dean, Mary and Cas was small and simple but heartwarmingly intimate, this was Mary _and Gabriel_ organizing this year's Christmas. And if Sam recalled correctly, Gabriel was directly linked to a special occurrence that supposedly happened on December 25. Sam briefly wondered if Gabriel even appreciated the holiday for what it was supposed to be.

"Not really," Gabriel mused loud enough for Sam to hear him. "Ya know, you could at least _try_ not to direct your thoughts _at me_ while thinking _about me_."

"Sorry," Sam muttered, taking a seat in one of the library's chairs, which had been transformed into a cushion of Christmas cheer.

"It's fine. And technically December 25 wasn't even when the little guy was born. I mean, the Church didn't really know, so they just picked the date based on some 'calculations', and they were also competing with some of the pagan festivities going on during the season," Gabriel rambled as he wrapped another couple layers of tinsel around the tree.

Sam had read about that somewhere, and he supposed Gabriel would know when—

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but— hehe, not really."

With a blank expression, Sam stared at the archangel most associated to the birth of Christ.

"What?" Gabriel protested defensively. "I wasn't exactly paying attention to the date, and you humans have changed calendars like three times since then!"

"He's got a point," Lucifer's voice came from somewhere on the other side of the tree.

Sam startled a bit when he registered where exactly Lucifer was – leaning against the railing near the Bunker's main door. The other archangel had a large pile of Christmas tree lights and the rest of the tinsel beside him. Sam hadn't even realized that was where Gabriel was pulling the tinsel from, let alone that Lucifer had been the one passing it over the railing to him.

"And you're fine with all of this?" Sam asked the older archangel, leaning a bit to the side to get a better view of him.

Lucifer raised an eyebrow. "I don't particularly care since you aren't exactly celebrating the 'little guy's' birth or whatever."

Okay, so Sam could understand his reasoning, but was Lucifer fine with the celebrating part of the holiday? Sure, Lucifer had been cordial during the Thanksgiving dinner. Would it still be the same in two days after… well, _that_?

"Don't worry your pretty head over it, Sam," Lucifer said to him with a smirk. "I'm not going to ruin your little holiday."

That was not very reassuring, but Sam just went with it. "Um, do you guys know where Mom or Cas might be?"

"They're in the kitchen with Dean," Gabriel answered, stretching to get the tinsel to hook around a specific branch.

"Thanks."

 **~o-O-o~**

Just like with the Thanksgiving thing, Dean had been a bit skeptical about decking everything out for Christmas and the New Year. Mary had quickly quashed those doubts. And between helping her make and put up the decorative details that she was taking care of, Dean was too busy to really worry any more than the occasional flare of panic that he was doing something wrong.

Eventually, Dean found himself with his mom and Cas making little Christmas treats. He wasn't sure what they were going to do with all of them, but when he snuck a couple of them into his mouth when the other two weren't looking, he decided that the treats tasted really good and that they were worth hoarding if there were leftovers.

So when Sam wandered in, Dean quickly finished swallowing the bite of snicker-doodle cookie that he'd had in his mouth. Sam gave him a suspicious look, to which Dean responded with an 'I didn't do anything' shrug. Disbelieving, Sam narrowed his eyes at him, but his attention was quickly drawn away by Cas, who bid Sam good morning.

Dean hid a smirk as Sam was soon voluntold into helping with the rest of the treats even though Sam insisted that he wouldn't be much help and would probably ice a batch wrong or something. Yeah, right. Sammy could whip up a potion like a pro; he could smear colored icing onto a couple cookies.

When an hour or so had passed, Mary suddenly asked, "How are Gabriel and Lucifer doing?"

Sam frowned, pausing in the middle of spreading some green icing on the tree-shaped cookie in his hand. "It looked like they were getting along fine when I saw them earlier," he said after a moment.

"Looks can be deceiving," Cas pointed out.

And as cliché as it may have sounded, there was a reason it was said so often. Dean couldn't even recall how many times the statement was proven true over the years. But then there were moments when everything was as it appeared. Moments like those were what really made it hurt when someone you thought you could trust stabs you in the back.

 _Bad thoughts, Dean._ He steered his attention back to stirring batter.

But the most recent event that he could tag with the saying would have to belong to either of the last two hunts Sam had dragged them all on. The vampire nest hadn't been one but actually two nests, and neither had been small. Of course, they hadn't realized that until they got to the main town that was suffering from an abundance of vampires. Thankfully, Sam had insisted on Mary and Cas going with them on 'one big family trip'.

Then there was that stupid case over in Massachusetts. Not that the case was stupid, per se… more that it had taken them almost a week to figure out what was luring people into the wetlands wilderness. It didn't help that the locals had put it to the folks being drawn out into the swamps by ignis fatuus, which was some phenomenon produced by marsh gas getting ignited by lightning or something ("Swamp farts, Sammy. Say it with me: _swamp farts_."). But when yet another person was reported missing after a law enforcement warning, natural causes were firmly ruled out.

Plus, Sam admitted to Lucifer being the one to call the case in, so there was no way there was anything natural about the number missing person reports. And clearly Lucifer knew exactly what they were supposed to be hunting, but he didn't offer any helpful hints and directly avoided answering any of Sam's questions about the case. The archangel was messing with them in his own way (remarkably different yet similar to Gabriel's methods of 'helping' on a case). Still, it was refreshing to be on a case without any higher-power help – excluding Cas because he hadn't been sure of what they were against for a while too.

But then, by the fifth day, Cas – having gone paired up with Dean while Sam went with Mary out into the wetlands around the area where the majority of people had been before going missing – had suggested that it might be a will-o'-the-wisp, or ghost-light. Basically, it was a ghost of someone "doomed to haunt the marshes (wetlands/swamp) with only a light (torch/ember) for some misdeed, which may or may not have kept the soul out of Heaven but the deed wasn't enough to send him/her to Hell, so the soul just got stuck on Earth to do things that were bound to send him/her one way or the other".

Knowing that didn't help too much because none of them really knew how to get rid of the ghost since they didn't have any reference to whom the soul was. Day seven had them back out in the swamp, armed with the basics. In the end, however, Mary took the ghost out by forcing the ghost's 'light' (an orb-thingy that glowed – Dean didn't really get a good look at it) into the water and putting the light out. Cas said that it had sent the ghost to Hell as the light was the only thing keeping on Earth but the ghost's actions on Earth was bad enough to send it downwards.

The missing people were later found by the authorities to all have been drowned or eaten by wildlife.

Yeah, cheery hunt. A wet and mostly made up of miserable searches in a marsh kind of hunt, but Dean had to admit that it had been a bit cool in terms of variety. It wasn't everyday that you got to deal with a ghost that couldn't really do anything to you except get you lost in the vast wilderness of the Massachusetts wetlands with a glowing orb thingy.

And, hey, at least there hadn't been any tentacle monsters. That would have sucked.

Something smacked him on the back of his head. A jerking, sharp head turn showed his mom with a cloth towel ready to hit him again to get his attention. When she saw that he was now looking at her, she gave him a warm look and nodded to the bowl which had a couple batches worth of dough ready to be put in the oven.

 _Right, back to business._

 **~o-O-o~**

It was a quiet night. Which was somewhat surprising, considering that it was the night after Christmas Day – long into the dark hours after the light festivities of the day. But, alas, 'partying' had taken its toll on the humans, and they were fast asleep in their rooms.

Many gifts had been given (to each, at least three or more presents were received). The gifts were taken back to the owner's respective room, and then dinner was served. _Someone_ (no names shall be given, but both Dean and Gabriel stood rather close to the bowl of milk punch) spiked the eggnog. However, it was only when Lucifer tried it that they all knew it had been spiked… and more alcohol was added. The end result was, of course, the humans getting wasted by the end of the evening in true celebratory hunter style.

As an aside Christmas present, the angels agreed to save their hunter family from the inevitable hangovers that came with drinking copious amounts of alcohol.

By, perhaps, a strange occurrence of events, it had been Lucifer who actually received the most presents. Collecting several books from Sam, a brand new phone from Dean, an ugly sweater from Gabriel and some kind of stuffed animal resembling a cat from Castiel, Lucifer had a pile growing next to him as Mary presented him with her own gift to him. It was a scrapbook.

For a moment, Lucifer had been confused about what the point of a scrapbook was supposed to be, but when he opened the book to the first page…

"Hey, isn't that from when Mary went with you and Gabriel to that fair a couple towns over, like three months ago?"

The picture of Gabriel waving cotton candy in front of Lucifer's amused face was indeed from the time Mary offered to accompany the two archangels to the regional fair. The captured moment had been from when Gabriel was in the middle of trying to get Lucifer to try the cotton candy. Mary must have taken the picture while they were distracted.

As he turned the pages to see the test of the pictures, Lucifer noted that they weren't in any particular order and were loose enough to take out of their holders if he pleased. He supposed that Mary had done that on purpose so he could put the photos into an order of his choice. He also noticed that all (outside during the solar eclipse in August; at a homecoming parade that the town hosted every year or something; in front of the entrance gate to Disney World's Magic Kingdom; on the sand by the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean in California; and several more) but one of the pictures were dated during the time he'd spent with his brother in the Bunker.

On the last page was a photo of Lucifer and Gabriel Bennett.

Even Gabriel stopped in the middle of poking Sam to look at the picture as Lucifer brushed gentle fingers over the image. It was from that day by the river – some city festival had been going on and the boy had wanted to join the festivities. They were both smiling in the picture. Lucifer was pointing at something (a ferry on the river) with his other arm wrapped around the boy's shoulders, and Gabriel was mid-turn in looking to where Lucifer was pointing, eyes full of wonder at everything going on around them.

"I know you probably won't ever look at this again, but I hope maybe you'll remember the moments that go with these pictures."

Lucifer looked up to see Mary gazing at him with a caring smile. "I don't know what to say…"

"You're supposed to say thank you," Gabriel lightly teased with a carefree grin.

It truly lifted Lucifer's spirit to see his brother so relaxed – the most Gabriel had been since November. What really killed the archangel inside was that he knew he wasn't going to be able to keep this much longer. As wonderful as the day had been, night would soon fall. And it was going to be an eternal one.

He supposed that, at the very least, he got to be happy for once.

Lucifer wasn't giving up. He wasn't that far gone yet. He would still fight, that was simply in his nature. But he knew a losing battle when he saw one, and this wasn't something he could win.

Lucifer could tell that Gabriel knew what was wrong with him. It was the sad looks and the regretful glaze that covered those beautiful amber eyes whenever the younger archangel gained when he thought Lucifer wasn't looking that had given it away. Gabriel knew, and either he couldn't do anything to stop it or it was a task beyond reason. Either way, his little brother didn't want to tell him, and that was okay. It meant that whatever Gabriel had learned wasn't an option that he was willing to take.

With nothing left, what else could Lucifer do but let go?

* * *

 **A/N: I'm sorry. This is going to get painful, even for me. I'm already dying just from having to imagine the scenes coming up. My little sister was glaring at me when I told her what I had in mind for poor Luci.**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

* * *

 **teabrows:** You're not that far off. Be My Guest starts sometime in the first or second week of December (around the 5th to 9th), and chapter 5 of Forevermore is set around December 4th or 5th. By the end of this chapter, however, it's closer to the end of December (after Christmas even), so now it's more like a year and a month.

 **Borrowed Silence:** Yup! And it's fine. Sometimes I miss an update and don't even realize it until I start reading the latest chapter and have no idea what's going on. I preen at your compliment, and thanks. I'm pretty sure I know which college I want to go to out of the letters I got, so now it's just doing the rest of the pre-college application _stuff_.


	9. Learned the Truth Too Late

**Chapter 8**

 **Learned the Truth Too Late**

Gabriel knew what he would have to do the moment he felt his bond with his older brother fade into practically nothing.

He had gotten past the childish notion of denial days ago. There was no denying what had happened to Lucifer. There was no denying what was happening to Lucifer. There was no denying what had to be done to Lucifer.

" _But he will be saved,_ " that young voice whispered to him.

Gabriel let out a scoff. "At a cost I'm not willing to pay."

Lucifer would hate him for even considering it. It was inhumane, let alone remotely angelic. Gabriel doubted even demons would cross that line. And if Lucifer didn't hate him afterwards, he was still left to hate himself.

" _We've been through this before,_ " the boy commented, " _though it was Lucifer who thought that you would hate him._ "

"So what if he forgives me? I would never forgive myself," Gabriel growled in response.

Golden-amber eyes prowled the prairie landscape before them. There was no other living animal around for miles. The wind, influenced by the archangel's inner turmoil, whipped the grass back and forth, making the light brown stalks bend in hypnotizing waves. Overhead, the eye of the clear blue sky cast its bright rays down upon the surface of the Earth, a steady contrast to the constant change about him.

" _It's the best option available to us. I hate it as much as you do, but it's either this or leave him to be what can only be described as a slave,_ " Bennett said with a sigh.

Gabriel closed his eyes and ran both of his hands through his hair, tugging at the loose strands that wove between his fingers. He couldn't do that to his brother. He wouldn't have even done it if Lucifer was going to end the world as humanity knew it again. No angel deserved what the Norns had shown Gabriel.

"I can't," he brokenly replied, dropping his hands back down to his side, casting his gaze upwards in a silent, hopeless prayer.

The ghost of a touch held his right hand. Glancing to the side, Gabriel caught a glimpse of Gabriel Bennett's transparent form looking up at him. " _We should at least tell the others._ "

With a nod, Gabriel blinked, and the boy had disappeared from all view. But the archangel could still feel Bennett where his grace mixed with the odd layering of 'souls'. He wasn't alone anymore, that human half reminded him. He had people he could rely on to help – people who relied on him in turn.

He wasn't alone, and he had a brother to save.

 **~o-O-o~**

"Woah— Time-out. Okay, _hold on_. So you've known for _how long_ what was wrong with Luce, and _you didn't tell anyone,_ " Dean practically shouted.

He was furious. This was the kind of bullshit that usually started another Apocalyptic mess. But of course, it was one thing to learn of the mistake and another to learn _from_ that mistake. And what was the number one thing that always led to shit hitting the fan? Oh, nothing but _keeping secrets from the people closest to you!_

"Dean," Sam started, putting a placating hand on his brother's arm. "Let him finish."

The older Winchester brother let out a growl but didn't go on, settling for glaring at the archangel in front of him. Gabriel met Dean's burning gaze with a golden flame in his amber eyes. Maybe it was a good thing that Mary and Cas were out of the Bunker on a grocery run. Maybe it wasn't. Either way, it was better for all of them to get the Winchester brothers' disapproval of Gabriel's… decision out of the way.

"I'm not sure what else there is to tell," Gabriel said emotionlessly, his voice dead of its usual cheerful inflections.

"Well, you've told us what you know about Lucifer's open deal, but you haven't told us how to fix it. I can tell you know. You've known since we got back from Massachusetts. That's what's been bothering you," Sam concluded, locking concerned eyes with regret-filled ones. "What is it that has to be done that's so bad you won't help your brother?"

Gabriel broke eye contact with Sam, closing his eyes and turning his face upwards with a sigh as he shifted his weight between where he stood and his grip on the back of one of the library's chairs. "It's not a solution, Sam. It's trading one shitty way to live for another."

"Right because whatever it is will be worse than being someone else's bitch—"

Gabriel's eyes snapped open at Dean's snide remark, golden anger flaring. "He would rather die than what I'd have to do to him. So forgive me for being selfish, but I don't want my brother to die," he hissed.

"Gabriel," Sam started, trying to be a voice of reason. "If what's happening to Lucifer is anything like your sources told you, then if that deal doesn't close, Lucifer will just be an empty shell of himself. He essentially _will_ be dead."

"How many times do I have to tell you?! I can't do that to him," Gabriel snapped, pushing himself back to pace alongside the bookshelves.

Dean let out a frustrated groan. "You haven't even told us what 'that' is."

Gabriel whipped around to face him, a finger pointed right at his face. "Don't," he growled, "don't you dare—"

"Dare what?" Dean goaded, standing up to meet Gabriel's challenge before Sam could stop him. "It's not like we're getting anywhere with you brushing us off. So, _yes_ , I do dare to get all up in your business because like it or not, you _and_ Lucifer are important to us. Okay?! That's right, you stupid, feathered moron. Welcome to the human family that's just as messed up as your angelic one. Now let us help, dammit!"

Sam and Gabriel were staring at Dean with varied levels of stunned shock. Dean inwardly scoffed and then rolled his eyes. Was what he'd just said so hard to believe? Okay, so maybe Dean wasn't the best at expressing how he felt about some things, but surely Sam at least understood how he operated at this point.

Either way, they'd all been living in the Bunker _since May_ for crying out loud. There was bound to be some kind of camaraderie forming amongst them. At the very least, they didn't hate each other as much as they had last December.

Gabriel stilled at the proclamation. The fury didn't drain from his eyes, still burning with that golden flame, but something _else_ flickered in the recesses of their bright color. Something... darker? No, something brown.

 _Shit_. Dean knew that look – kind of. He knew about it of course (they all did), but he'd only really seen the subtle difference once sometime back in the month of August. Dean was tempted to say hey to the kid; however, one would have to be stupid to not see that Gabriel Bennett shared the archangel's ire.

"And what, Dean, would you be able to do?" Gabriel said in a voice that was not outright furious but not necessarily placated either.

Sam chose that moment to speak up. "We'll be there, Gabriel. You don't have to do this alone."

Brown began to cloud gold. Gabriel's stance visibly released the form wracking tension that had built between the archangel's shoulders. A small self-depreciating smile crossed his lips as Gabriel met Sam's concerned gaze.

"It's not that simple, Sam," he responded morosely. "Even having all the time in the universe wouldn't bring us the right answer."

"So what if it's not the right way? It's the better option," Dean inputted after a moment of harsh silence.

That small smile turned grim. "You would have me cut off Lucifer's wings then?"

Dean's mind blanked. He wasn't registering the words that had slipped from Gabriel's mouth. _Cut off Lucifer's wings..?_ "What?"

"The only options I have are to let him be at the whims of another or to ground him forever. Should I leave him to be a slave or make him what he rebelled against to prove a point?"

 _Cut off his wings_... Make Lucifer human. Lucifer would hate himself. Gabriel would hate himself for letting Lucifer go on without any form of free will. Gabriel would hate himself either way. But they could teach Lucifer to manage being human. God knows what would happen if they left Lucifer to whoever had him.

Dean met Gabriel's brown-eyed stare. "Why does it have to be his wings? Why not his grace or something?"

" _'The Fallen must Fall'_ ," Gabriel relayed, quoting the old Norns. Within the space of a blink, weary amber eyes looked back at green. "It's symbolic, Deano. Another fall from grace… just a bit more literal."

"Wait— wouldn't Lucifer still have his grace though?" Sam asked, an idea forming.

But Gabriel shot it down before the idea could come close to completion. "Yes, but he wouldn't be able to use it. It would be locked away within him. So close yet so far, as the saying goes."

Human. At the very least, a depowered angel. It was a hard enough adjustment for Cas back during the tablets and Metatron fiasco. Just how well would an archangel take being brought down to Sam and Dean's level. Especially the one who challenged God over their species' creation. And to have the very thing that made you what you were _right there_ …

Damn, Dean's sympathy for the devil was really kicking in.

"Well," he started with a gruff sigh, sitting back down and reclining in his chair. "We gotta find him first."

"Should probably tell Mom and Cas before that," Sam muttered.

Dean frowned, a pout just on the edges of his expression. "That, too."

Sam was already way ahead of him though, pulling his tablet out of nowhere to start doing whatever he did on it. "We could probably start by pinging his phone's location, assuming that Lucifer still had it on him when he, uh, left," Sam said, stumbling over the end of his suggestion and glancing up at Gabriel.

When Sam didn't go on, his fingers pausing in their work, Dean looked over to Gabriel as well. The archangel appeared to be legitimately stunned. He was staring at them with an almost disbelieving look in his eyes. Though, what it was that had him stumped Dean wasn't sure.

It could have been a number of things. Sam trying out the human fashion of finding a missing person. Dean being pretty okay with everything now that it was all out in the open. Or maybe it was because of—

"Thank you."

That. Yeah, it could also be that. Dean let out an inward scoff. It wasn't a demeaning scoff towards Gabriel though, more a… 'I should have thought of that first' kind of scoff. He wouldn't let it show outwardly, but in that moment he felt proud of Gabriel.

When he and Sam first met what they originally only knew as the Trickster, Dean had actually kind of liked the guy's style. Then Broward County happened, and the Trickster was on Dean's shit list. After the big reveal that the Trickster was really an angel – Gabriel the archangel, no less – Dean still hated Gabriel's guts, taking him for the coward that he was. Of course, what happened in the Elysian Fields Hotel changed Dean's private opinion of Gabriel, putting the archangel on what would become a long list of dead allies and friends.

Sam and Dean never brought up the archangel-turned-trickster again. Sure, the name was mentioned and quickly dismissed sometimes while researching something, but it wasn't until they had to work with Chuck and Lucifer to defeat Amara that they took a moment to remember the other archangel that helped them. And then when they needed something that could permanently stop Lucifer, they turned to something of Gabriel's that they were pretty sure would work.

Sam and Dean never really got to use Gabriel's blade, not that they would have been able to actually use it properly since only archangels could fully utilize their blades. Still, it had been a great 'motivator' for Lucifer to cooperate while the Winchesters dealt with Gabriel Bennett, which had actually been a whole lot easier than most of the things they'd had to do over the years. Dean had been the one to figure out that the kid was more like the archangel than it first seemed, but it still took the two 'merging' or whatever to confirm that observation.

After Gabriel and Lucifer reconciled (because those two had _issues_ that Dean didn't even want to go near sometimes) and decided to hang out with the rest of them (i.e. Sam, Dean, Mary and Cas) in the Bunker, it hadn't exactly been easy sailing from there on out, but it had certainly felt like a vacation more often than not. Sure, there was always the occasional hunt that they would all take turns going on, but there had been nothing predominantly evil that wanted to take over the world.

Dean had let himself relax. And it felt good – being able to be with his family and not have to worry about some looming big bad ready to set the world on fire.

Thing was, Dean could trace that relaxed state back to Gabriel, even if the trickster archangel caused him so much grief with his pranks. That was part of the reason why Dean was content to let both archangels stay in the Bunker. (Another being that someone had to keep an eye on those two. And besides, they were both pretty cool when they weren't being assholes.)

Though everyone could agree that they could all tolerate each other, Cas and Mary were the only ones to outwardly treat Gabriel and Lucifer like family. Sam and Dean had their moments with the archangels, but until Dean's outburst not ten minutes ago, neither had really given any indication of what they truly felt about their archangelic guests.

And because of that, there were some things that the archangels just didn't bring up to them. Dean understood that, he did. It was just that there are some end-of-the-world-as-we-know it secrets that you do not keep from other people you know who can help stop it. Which was why Dean was so pissed off at the archangel.

Which was also why Dean was proud of Gabriel now.

Both the archangel and the kid were clearly conflicted with what they had to do, and yet they came to Sam and Dean for help first. Before anyone else that Gabriel could have gone to, he chose them – two brothers that the archangel never would have bothered even considering going to eight years ago on sheer basis of who he was. But that had changed over the months that they had all gotten to know each other.

And as sappy as it sounded, they were all there for each other. They could trust one another. And that Gabriel had shown he felt the same way by telling them everything, even if it had taken a little pushing on Dean's part.

Dean threw one of his more honest grins Gabriel's way. "Don't worry about it."

 **~o-O-o~**

In the end, after the Winchesters had exhausted their resources trying to find their missing archangel, they found Lucifer through a case.

At first glance, the article made it seem like the case was because of a demon, but there weren't any of the other signs of their hellish presence. That didn't leave much else that could have ripped those poor people apart. Dean eventually made the decision to bring everyone on the hour drive it took to get to the small town.

Gabriel agreed to go along without any fuss. He sat in the back with Mary and Castiel, staring out the window most of the journey and only messing with the radio twice before he let it be (ignoring Dean's glares as the songs grated on the older Winchester brother's nerves). When they finally arrived at the town – which barely had a population of five hundred – Gabriel hardly gave the main street's buildings a second glance.

Mary and Castiel were both casting the archangel concerned looks. Sam and Dean had filled them in on what was happening to Lucifer, but the two hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Gabriel about it. With Castiel, Gabriel and Lucifer were literally family, and Mary had taken a liking to Gabriel Bennett the moment she laid eyes on him – a liking which soon included Lucifer and later Gabriel the archangel. Needless to say, both parties were invested in the archangels' well-being.

However, with Gabriel not even speaking to them, it was hard to convey what they were feeling. Not that they really needed to. Gabriel could sense the ever constant hum of their minds, the warm presence of their souls (and grace, in regards to Castiel). But he couldn't reassure them, not honestly.

He had a sinking feeling in his grace about the 'case', and he had an inlinking about what they would find. He had seen such violence before – oh, human and demons and other creepy crawlies of the night were more than capable of the massacre shown in the article and police report. Still, he refused to voice his suspicions. He didn't want the others to walk in with a prejudice.

But when they entered the building that had been sectioned off from the rest of the town… Nothing would stop Sam or Dean from confronting the 'man' standing in the middle of the aftermath of his work. Blood was splattered everywhere in graceful patterns, like a painting. The outlines of where bodies had laid upon the ground like torqued figures or puppets, whose strings had been cut, leaning against the walls.

"What the— Lucifer?" Dean snapped as he was the first to put two and two together.

The archangel spun, blinking out of a trance, and was more than shocked to see them. "What..? I— I didn't… Th-this wasn't me."

"Then what the hell did this, Lucifer?" Dean demanded, forcefully thrusting his gun down at the ground in a frustrated release of anger.

"I don't—"

"Lucifer, tell me you didn't do kill all of those people," Mary said sadly, her eyes closed to the massacre before them.

"I didn't," he insisted.

"And I believe you," she assured him, her blue eyes meeting his. "But this doesn't look good."

It didn't look good at all. It didn't help that they knew Lucifer did do it. It was the blood on his hands that gave it away.

* * *

 **A/N: It has come to my attention that over half of you guys don't even read these author's notes (at my little sister and best friend, who so graciously informed me of this). On the basis that at least some people do read these, I will keep putting them here along with the review responses.**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

* * *

 **Avenage99:** I'm not exactly happy with what I'm writing at the moment. But don't get me wrong – I'm not going to scrap this fic. I just want to get right to the point and not jump through hoops to set everything up. I have other ideas I want to explore with this fic (* _cough_ * the BMOL * _cough_ *), but I can't exactly get to them until I finish this arc with Luci first.


	10. I'll Never Shake Away the Pain

**Precursor Note: So, uh, I was trying out a different style with this chapter. The sections in regular text are the 'present' while the _italicized sections_ are flashbacks. The flashbacks aren't in any particular order so have fun putting it all together XD**

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

 **I'll Never Shake Away the Pain**

Amber eyes flickered up to the familiar figure that stood in his bedroom's doorway. Hazed blue orbs squinted at him, a hand gripping at short blond hair. The figure stumbled a step further into his room before those blue eyes managed to glare at the bright light the only lamp in the room was giving off.

Gabriel immediately dimmed the light to a soft glow with the slightest twitch of a finger. "Headache again?" he asked quietly.

His brother still made a sharp wince at the noise before slowly nodding and then cringed at the jostling movement. He let out the barest of huffs, shuffling closer to the bed. It took longer than usual for him to get comfortable, but they managed it, Lucifer's head eventually coming to rest in Gabriel's lap.

" _Hurts_ ," came the whispered whimper.

"Where does it hurt, brother?" the archangel asked in the same hushed tone.

Gabriel carefully, gently ran soothing fingers through his brother's hair as Lucifer squirmed in his spot instead of responding. Gabriel knew where it hurt – where it always hurt. (It wasn't his fault – _wasn't it though?_ – that sometimes the most inconsequential thing would trigger something in Lucifer's subconscious that stirred sealed away memories – _memories that never should have been there in the first place_ – which in turn caused these headaches.) He let the smallest amount of grace flow through his hand, letting it sooth his brother's mind into a quiet peace. It was the least he could do but still not enough to ease his guilt.

 **~o-O-o~**

 _"How could you just lose him?" Gabriel demanded, shoving a pointed finger in Dean's face. "You had one job, Winchester_ — one! _"_

 _Dean smacked the hand away from his face, eyes matching their rival's own blazing glare. "And where the hell were you, huh? You left with Cas without even giving us a heads up!"_

 _"Stop it. Both of you," Mary said, stepping in between them and pushing them a distance away from one another. However, both still held their respective glares._

 _"Find him," the archangel growled before storming out of the room in a rush of feathers._

 _Sam let out a weary sigh. "I guess it's a good thing I slipped Lucifer's phone back into his pocket."_

 _Dean turned to look at his brother with a faux betrayed expression on his face. "You couldn't have said that while Goldilocks was about to chew my head off?" he scoffed._

 _Sam just shrugged, the picture of pure innocence. "You looked like you had it under control."_

 _"Yeah right, bitch."_

 _"Whatever, jerk."_

 _Mary shook her head. "Children," she muttered under her breath._

 **~o-O-o~**

Dean almost jumped at the sight of Gabriel's 'new' form rounding the hallway's corner. It just didn't suit the archangel. Oh, the reason he looked the way he currently did made perfect sense, but… it was _so wrong_. The dirty blond hair, skinny but lean frame, childish face and inconspicuous clothing did not go with those amber eyes – nor did the archangel's expressions.

"Something wrong, Deano?" Gabriel asked, _that_ voice reaching the human's ears instead of the one Dean would have preferred to hear if only in reference to who exactly was talking.

Dean barely held back a wince. "I'm still not used to you walking around like… _this_."

The archangel sighed, the sound of it raking against Dean's eardrums. "I don't get why it's so hard for your peanut brain to comprehend _this_ , as you so kindly put it," Gabriel scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "It's simple shapeshifting. I did it in that other body of mine, too. TV Land ring a bell?"

"Oh, it does," Dean assured him. "It's just…"

"You're not used to seeing Gabriel Bennett act like this?" the archangel finished, raising an eyebrow.

Dean made an unrepentant, albeit sheepish, affirmative gesture. But even so, Gabriel Bennett didn't act all that differently than the archangel did. Dean was almost ninety-five percent sure that the main reason he was so… uncomfortable with the whole thing was due to _why_ Gabriel had to look like the kid.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes at Dean, clearly not happy with Dean's behavior. "I take it you weren't paying attention when I explained it all to Sammy. It's not like I'd be wasting air repeating that whole rambling session, but I also feel like it'd just go over your head again."

Now, Dean knew that he should probably feel insulted by the comment, but given _everything_ , he couldn't bring himself to snap back at the only remaining archangel who was at full power. Besides, Gabriel was completely right about Dean not having paid attention to that 'whole rambling session', which actually happened to be very informative about the shapeshifting thing. If anything, Dean just felt bad – bad about being a crappy listener, bad about the damn situation, bad about everything around them that went straight to hell almost a month ago…

 **~o-O-o~**

 _Gabriel barely held back a growl at Crowley's taunt. Sam, Dean, Mary and Cas were still all knocked out in various states of wellbeing behind him. He had to protect them while also fending off his bro_ — _Crowley's puppet. Gabriel quickly dodged to the side as Lucifer's blade came dangerously close to his face._

 _Amber eyes narrowed in furious thought as Gabriel evaded yet another swipe of that blade. He needed to get out of here. There were too many sigils hampering his options, and the others would get caught in the crossfire of any blasts of grace. And with Crowley standing_ right there _, who knew how long it would be before the demon got bored and did something drastic_ —

 _Gabriel narrowly avoided getting his throat slit. Right. No time for deep, inner thinking right now. He had to focus. But he had to try at least one more time…_

 _"Lucifer_ — _"_

 _Drop to the ground. Twist to the right to avoid being impaled._

 _"I know you're still in there."_

 _Back up on the feet. Defensive stance._

 _"You have to be_ — _"_

 _Grab wrist, twist, make him drop his sword._

 _"Just…"_

 _Get closer._

 _"Come home with us... Please."_

 _Blank eyes – the sclera was black, the irises a burning crimson – stared at him. Not even a flicker of emotion passed through them. "I don't have a home."_

 _Gabriel was too stunned to notice the second blade until it pierced his stomach._

 **~o-O-o~**

Sam rapped his knuckles on the closed door, letting the person inside know he was out in the hallway. He knew that Lucifer wouldn't reply, but Sam was still going to check up on him whether the ex-archangel (well, not _ex_ -archangel, but close enough) liked it or not. According to Gabriel, today was one of Lucifer's better days, so hopefully he wouldn't completely blow Sam off like he would on a normal day.

"Hey, Lucifer, I was wondering if you'd like to join the rest of us in the game room to watch the latest Star Wars movie…" he trailed off, both waiting for a reply and not knowing if he should continue.

Right as Sam was about to call it a day and head back over to the game room, he heard a movement inside of Lucifer's room. He stayed silent, ears straining to hear any other indication of what Lucifer might be doing. And then the door opened.

Even after two months now, Lucifer looked like hell (Dean's words, though Sam had to agree). He was pale from never leaving the Bunker, and the dark bags under his eyes were a dead giveaway to how much he slept, which was hardly at all (and when Lucifer _did_ happen to get some rest, it was only whenever Gabriel was nearby). Lucifer was thinner now, too. He didn't eat as much as he should, and both Mary and Gabriel fussed over him about that little fact.

But Lucifer was getting better. He may have looked like that wasn't true, but it was.

On his good days, Lucifer would actually leave his room or willingly go somewhere Gabriel wasn't. He would eat without needed to be prompted. Most good days, Lucifer didn't wake up (several times) in the middle of the night from a nightmare, nor would he get caught in a flashback at odd times. The best of the good days – the days when Lucifer would interact with at least Mary or Cas aside from Gabriel – were the ones they sought to make a regular occurrence.

Normal days were usually the days that Sam didn't see hide nor hair of the wingless archangel. Gabriel had told Sam it was because Lucifer just stayed in his room, or he had wandered off to Gabriel's room. Gabriel could sometimes get Lucifer to eat properly on normal days. More often than Gabriel liked, Lucifer had headaches on the borderline-bad-but-technically-normal days.

They didn't talk about Lucifer's bad days. It was better for all of them to just get through it and be ready for the following day.

That being said, Sam was just glad Lucifer answered the door. "Hey, you feeling up to popcorn maybe? I think Gabriel got that caramel stuff along with the regular kind."

"Sure."

Sam gave Lucifer a small smile at that. He couldn't hate Lucifer – not anymore, not after what happened. It was getting harder and harder to hate the archangel beforehand anyways. Now Sam found it hard to treat Lucifer any less than he would any other human being. No more avoiding, no more underhanded comments.

"Come on," Sam said, starting his walk to the game room and waving a gesture for Lucifer to join him. "If we hurry, we can steal Dean's usual spot."

A flicker of amusement passed through Lucifer's eyes before it vanished behind a careful mask. Still, Lucifer nodded, picking up his pace. "I want all of the pillows."

Sam grinned at that. Dean's usual spot was actually the bed that was in the game/entertainment room – and for occasions like these (watching movies), Gabriel transformed the usual three TVs set up into one giant TV screen that took up most of the wall – which had several various sized pillows that came with the rights of claiming the bed for the day. This meant that Dean not only hogged the bed but also the pillows whenever they all got together to watch movies or TV shows. And since the king-sized bed would be big enough for the both of them, Sam didn't mind Lucifer taking the pillows. It was a decent trade off. (Sam just really liked being able to stretch out along the bed during the longer movies or strings of multiple episodes in a row.)

"Deal."

Sam slowly let Lucifer walk ahead of him as to not tip Lucifer off to the subtle action. He only stayed just behind the ex-archangel to hide the concerned look that crossed his face. Yes, Lucifer was getting better, but they still had a long way to go.

 **~o-O-o~**

 _"Sam, Dean... Can you really blame me?" Crowley asked with a smug smirk and a raised eyebrow making up his facial expression. He was gloating, and they all knew it._

 _"Dammit, Crowley," Dean exclaimed through a growl of frustration and anger. "The hell are you trying to pull?!"_

 _A strange glint entered Crowley's dark eyes. "I'm not just_ trying _, Squirrel. I'm_ achieving _."_

 _"What did he ever do to you?"_

 _Stupid question – very stupid question. Fury danced throughout Crowley's whole posture. Right as it looked like Crowley was about to explode on them, the King of Hell let out a bitter scoff before letting his anger fall back behind a hard mask._

 _"Enough," was the simple answer._

 _Lucifer had humiliated Crowley. Damaging a demon's pride never lead to anything good. Crowley must have been planning this ever since the Winchesters had met Gabriel Bennett, and it was a plan made for the long run. It had to have so many contingencies to be accounted for, considered, taken care of before anyone else ever thought of them. It was the King of Hell's revenge, and it was flawless. There wasn't any way that Crowley would lose. In fact, he'd already won._

 _Lucifer had caused Crowley pain, and so the demon had returned it tenfold. Lucifer's pain was derived from those around him, the connections he had with them. Crowley's plan, once initiated, had chipped away at those relationships, sowing misery and distrust amongst the Bunker's residents. Gabriel had been able to catch a glimpse of what was truly going on, but he'd been too late to repair the damage without doing even more. And now, here they were._

 _Endgame, no matter what Sam or Dean or Gabriel or Castiel or Mary did, Crowley would win even if they got Lucifer back. The damage had already been done._

 **~o-O-o~**

Gabriel glared at the fringe of dirty blond hair that refused to stay behind his ear. He was trying to do something serious, but the stupid hair strands were ruining the moment. While he could just use his grace to put it back in place and make it stay there, it had already fallen in front of his eyes. Whatever. He could be serious with hair in his face. Still... _damn this kid's long hair._

" _It's not that long_ ," said kid huffed in response.

 _Hey, been a while,_ Gabriel projected his thought to the human part of himself. _And yes, it's long. It's close to Sam's hair length._

" _Is that a bad thing?_ " that young voice asked with a tone of mock curiosity. " _Besides, there's no one to impress considering we're in the middle of nowhere._ "

 _It's killing the mood, and talking out loud would ruin it too,_ Gabriel pouted, wrapping his jacket tighter around himself and putting his hands under his armpits for warmth.

It was a biting cold that rushed through the area in a blast of wind, not of Gabriel's making. His jacket didn't do anything to protect him from the icy chill – in fact, his wings were doing a far better job of shielding him from the wind, and they were on another plane of existence! – as he waited for the person he was meeting here. And they were certainly taking their sweet time. A shiver ran through him.

 _It's like the wind blows right through me_ , he mentally grouched.

Bennett made a tsking sound. " _Stop badly quoting movies. It's not original at all. Rather unbecoming of an_ _archangel_."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. Right, because archangels had to be exactly what people thought them to be. At this point, if there was a single angel still alive that could live up to the idea humans had of them (or at the very least, doing what angels were meant to do all along), he would gladly congratulate them on being a decent celestial being and then tell them to stay the way they were. He might even march into Heaven with them and dub them Steward of Heaven or something. Whatever, as long as he didn't have to be in charge of those idiots.

Then again, not _all_ of the remaining angels were complete morons. Another gust of winter wind made its way through the trees. It was an unnatural wave of air that carried the sound of wings alighting. Within the next blink of an eye, the person came into view. Well, the angel did – it's not like her vessel was going to be participating in their conversation.

"Gabriel," the angel greeted with a nod, appearing completely unaffected by the freezing temperatures of their surroundings.

But she _was_ an angel after all. And while Gabriel was technically an archangel, _Bennett_ was not – which meant since Gabriel was currently parading around in his human side's form, all of his humanly attributes got amplified way more than they would have been if he'd stay in his favorite Trickster form. (It something that he really didn't understand, and it wasn't a problem he cared to figure out in his very, very little amount of free time.)

"Long time no see, Kemuel. How's Heaven doing nowadays?" he asked with as much nonchalance as he could manage with his teeth clacking together so much because of the cold.

The angel frowned, looking distantly to the side. "Considering everything that's happened over the past ten years, not bad," she replied, turning her gaze back to Gabriel.

"Seriously? You guys weren't even freaking out over me being back?" he questioned, trying to get some decent answers.

Kemuel was Gabriel's go-to contact when it came to anything Heaven related, and she had been ever since she stumbled across him as he was in the middle of planning his great escape from Heaven. She'd had a crush on him back before Michael and Lucifer started fighting more than usual. Gabriel had taken that fact and used it to his advantage for some information to keep the rest of the Angel Squad off his heels during that whole shit-fest.

" _Oh?_ She _had a crush on_ you _? I thought it was the other way around._ "

 _Shut up_ , Gabriel shot back as a wistful smile slipped onto Kemuel's face.

"Not all of us have full extent of our powers or grace restored, and most of us who could sense your return are competent enough to know you want nothing to do with us," she said airily. "Besides, Joshua is far more concerned with getting back in touch with everyone, especially those stuck here on Earth."

Gabriel felt a frown of his own form on his face. "Not all of you have made it back to Heaven yet?"

"As of this past week, there are still a few out there who haven't been found. And no, we're not forcing the ones who like Earth to come back home. Joshua is respecting the decisions of our brothers and sisters as long as they don't cause any trouble," Kemuel finally answered in a proper report style.

"What about Crowley? Did you guys know?"

Some emotion Gabriel couldn't pin down flashed across Kemuel's grace, though her face remained blank. Her answering "no" told him that she did know something about what happened, just not anything that would have helped him then nor now. He could trust that she wouldn't lie to him as much as she could trust that he wouldn't lie to her. Such was their relationship, built upon the echoes of a long forgotten promise.

"How is he?" she asked in what could have only been an impulsive moment.

"Why do you care?" he snapped back defensively, gold flaring challengingly in his eyes.

Kemuel met his burning gaze with an equal passion. "You do."

" _Just tell her_ ," Bennett grumbled, speaking up from his corner of Gabriel's mind.

 _Stop butting in._ "Lucifer is... He's managing." Gabriel found that he was slightly proud of the fact that he said it without having to stop more than once.

The angel looked upwards at his response, solemnly staring up at something far, far way. "I can't imagine what he's been through. Now, after _everything_... I'm not sure any of us would have made it this far," she admitted to him, a soft breeze making her vessel's brown hair briefly float in the air.

Alone in the quite of the forest, all that could be heard was the silence between them. The wind made it's presence known, but it went unheard – a voiceless whisper in a void. And not a single creature dared to break the heavy air that sat between the two higher beings visiting their home.

"If you'd like, I can convince Joshua to let the both of you visit and see some of the changes sometime," Kemuel murmured, letting her soft-spoken words carry another message that she couldn't speak aloud.

Gabriel paused, humbled by her offer. It was free passage into Heaven. It meant being able to enter without whatever was left of the angels trying to kill them out of whatever spite they still had regarding the archangels. Joshua may be in charge of Heaven nowadays, but Kemuel was essentially the Gardener's second-in-command. She had just as much sway over the happenings in Heaven as Joshua did.

"You know, I would love to accept," he started, gaining a sad look from her as she knew exactly how he was going to finish his answer, "but, maybe next time."

That's what he always said.

She sighed softly. "Take care of yourself, Gabriel."

"You, too," he whispered to the empty space before him. _She never stays long enough to hear me say anything else._

Gabriel let out a sigh of his own and started heading back towards the Bunker. Lucifer would be waking up soon, and it usually ended up being a bad day if Gabriel wasn't anywhere in the underground repository of knowledge for Lucifer to find him if need be. The dependency wasn't exactly a good thing in the first place, but it couldn't be helped – it was a coping mechanism for them both. And hey, if it worked, it worked. No need to go around fixing something that wasn't broken.

But they were. Underneath all the masks and façades they hid behind, they were broken.

 **~o-O-o~**

 _Taking a deep steeling breath, he began the first incision, cutting into the flesh where wing met back. Lucifer shrieked a cry of pain, body tensing, tremors running down his spine. Agonized screams pierced his ears as he moved on to the other wing, and writhing limbs struggled to free themselves. Still, he did not stop. He couldn't._

 _And when it was finally, blessedly done... long after Lucifer had passed out from the pain... only then did Gabriel drop his blade – a clattering noise that shattered through the cacophony of rain and thunder. He gently took Lucifer's limp and bloody form into his arms and cried. Rocking them both back and forth in a failing effort to cause comfort, he cried, tears spilling down his cheeks._

 _"Forgive me!" he shouted to the sky, voice breaking. "Oh, God, forgive me!"_

* * *

 **A/N: Hmm… Am I a horrible person?**

 **(Happy New Years~)**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]


	11. Steal into My Melancholy Heart

**Chapter 10**

 **Steal into My Melancholy Heart**

"Are you _sure_ you'll be alright?" Gabriel asked for what must have been the hundredth time.

Lucifer bit the inside of his cheek to keep from responding with a particularly nasty retort. He understood his brother's concern – this being the first time that Gabriel would be away from the Bunker for what could possibly be several days to a couple weeks – but Lucifer was only essentially human, _not_ a child.

"If you ask me that one more time, I _will_ punch you in the face," he threatened, leveling a glare on the other's smaller and younger form. "Mary and Castiel will be here with me, and the worst that could happen would be me falling down the stairs or something."

Gabriel's concern didn't let up, but he did stop pushing the subject. They had talked about this before anyways – about a week or two ago. At some point, Gabriel would eventually have to leave Lucifer by himself for a while to go help the Winchester brothers because of whatever they'd done to get into whatever mess they'd gotten into. This way – Sam and Dean had come across a string of what looked like fae murders (as in, fairies that had been killed) – at least, Lucifer could make the decision himself that he was ready and it wasn't some emergency.

And Lucifer wanted to do this. Not just to show the others that he was relatively fine now, but also to prove it to himself. Nothing was the same, none of it. It was something that went unspoken in the Bunker as well as written in stone. What happened was simply _what happened_. It wasn't referred to by any other way. Lucifer didn't remember what happened – not consciously anyway. Gabriel refused to tell him about it, and the humans and Castiel didn't know enough about everything that happened to give him the whole picture. So Lucifer was left to recover from a glaring hole in his memories as well as the sudden loss of his wings.

That first week was filled with pain. The gaping double wounds where his wings used to be slowly healed over. It took less time than it would have for a human, but the aching scars were a constant reminder. He could cope with the pain (that was something he was used to), but the void of his grace was crippling. Adjusting to his essentially-human status was stressful for the others, he knew. There were times when he'd lash out in anger or whatever emotion fouled his mood that day. Other times he'd fall into some despair induced depression, locking himself away in a tedious world of darkness.

Acceptance was the easiest and hardest part of the entire process – the "road to recovery" or whatever. Accepting _what happened_ was probably harder for Gabriel than it was for Lucifer, but coming to terms with the aftermath couldn't have been easy for any of them, especially Lucifer. Remembering to eat and sleep and drink and bathe and go to the restroom were nothing compared to waking up or finding something else that he couldn't do like he used to. And as much as Lucifer hated being like this, it was so much worse for his little brother. So on his better days, Lucifer kept his mouth shut; at the very least, he could keep Gabriel from succumbing to guilt.

Honestly, truthfully, from the bottom of his very human heart and locked away grace, Lucifer didn't blame Gabriel for any of it. Nor did he place any blame on the Winchesters or Castiel. He didn't have anyone to blame except himself, and even then, he'd long ago accepted that he couldn't have done anything about it neither then nor now.

"Gabriel," Lucifer gently called to the form of the thirteen-year-old boy. "I'll be fine," he reassured him, getting up and moving over to put a grounding hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "If I'm not, you'll take care of it when you get back."

Golden hair fell in a curtain over amber eyes. "You're a real ass-hat, you know that?"

"You love me anyways," Lucifer lightly teased, ruffling his little brother's hair.

Gabriel sighed, relenting and letting Lucifer mess up his hair before moving to smack the offending hand away. "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone," he ordered with a soft edge to his tone.

"What fun would that be?" Lucifer scoffed. "Besides, you're the one going off on a case with Sam and Dean."

Shaking his head, Gabriel rolled his eyes. He was gone within the next blink of an eye, joining Sam and Dean – who had left earlier that morning.

Settling down on his bed, Lucifer sighed and went back to reading _1984_. Literature. It was something he was starting to really appreciate. Well, it was just _reading_ that helped rather than the content. It was a way for him to focus on anything other than himself and _what happened_.

He looked up and glanced over at the digital clock Gabriel had put on his nightstand at one point or another. It was 7:36… PM. Letting out a weary sigh, Lucifer ran a tired hand over his face. He didn't care to admit his was still exhausted from barely getting any sleep over the last few nights, and he seriously doubted that he'd get any tonight.

That didn't keep his eyes from drifting shut as the numbers on the clock silently ticked up to 1:57 AM.

 _Black. Dark, dark black nothing._

 _Can't move. Can't breathe. Don't need to breathe._

 _Silence. Sound. A voice. Female. Scottish. Bitch_ — _no. Witch._

 _"It's rather weird, to be honest. Seeing such a passionate beast being so… docile."_

 _Wrong. Not right. That wasn't_ right _. Wrongwrongwrong._

 _A tsking noise. A different voice. Male. British. So familiar. The faint stirrings of recognition crushed by the hold. That damned fog wrapped around his mind, his grace, his soul_ — _"Shame he doesn't even act like the prick he really is."_

 _Quiet. Nothing again. There'snothingthereatall_ — _does he even exist?_

 _Doesn't matter. Of course it doesn't. There's no point in fighting back against it. Not against something that grew like the parasite it was into the very core of his grace. To remove it was to remove himself._

 _No. Nononononono. Not right again. Wrong. Always wrong_ —

 _Pain. Painpainpain_ — _right where his wings should have been. That blade cutting through skin and muscle and bone and tearing into his essence_ —

Lucifer jolted upright from the awkward position he fell asleep in. He struggled to regain control of his breathing. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. In. Out. In. Out. Steady. Steady. His hands were still shaking, knuckled white because of the tight grip on the sheets. At least he hadn't ripped them again. It took him another minute to feel the cool air touching his sweat-stained clothes.

The memory-dream-nightmare was already fading. He knew better than to try and hold onto it. That always ended with a headache (not just for him).

"Calm down," he muttered to himself, ignoring how unstable he sounded even to himself.

This was real. It was just a dream ( _a memory_ ). It was over, gone, done with, _the past_. In every sense of the meaning. It could haunt him, but that didn't mean he should just let it affect him. He needed to pull himself back together. He could do it. He had to.

He stripped out of the now-disgusting clothes he'd fallen asleep in and redressed himself in some of the clothes Gabriel had gone out and actually bought for Lucifer. Lucifer had found it ridiculous to change what he was wearing _every day_ , but Gabriel kept insisting and eventually it just became habit. Most of what he wore looked almost exactly the same either way.

Lucifer made his way to the kitchen, where Castiel would be by now despite it being only four in the morning. Lucifer preferred the coffee that Mary brewed but she was usually up around five. Still, Castiel made a decent cup of coffee. Besides, Lucifer didn't care for actually drinking the coffee – he just enjoyed the smell.

However, Lucifer realized that he'd made a mistake as soon as he entered the kitchen. Mary was, in fact, very awake in spite of the time. Of course she'd be awake. Sam and Dean were out on a case. Not that she was overly worried to the point of insomnia – there was always the chance that you might not come back from a case alive, a risk that every human shared. It was pure motherly instinct that she woke up earlier than she usually did when her sons were out hunting.

So he should have expected her to be leaning against the main counter in the kitchen, talking quietly with Castiel, who replied with his own quiet responses every once in a while. Lucifer continued staring at them for another moment before suddenly blurting out: "I'm going outside."

Mary's eyes quickly snapped over to where he was standing in the doorway, obviously not realizing he'd been there for at least five minutes. Castiel on the other hand only slowly moved his gaze to Lucifer, narrowing his eyes and taking in Lucifer's disheveled state.

"It's raining," the angel said bluntly.

Mary glanced back at Castiel when Lucifer didn't respond in any way to Castiel's statement. And that's all it was. A statement, not an approval nor a rejection. "Don't wander too far," she added, inputting her own opinion in a neutral manner.

Lucifer stiffly nodded and then practically flew to the front door ( _except he couldn't fly anymore, never again_ ). How long had it been since he'd been outside? A while, at the very least – perhaps a couple weeks, give or take. It had been a very long time since he'd last stood in the rain.

 _They had gotten caught in the middle of a light downpour sometime in the middle of February. The boy didn't seem to mind though. In fact, he even insisted that they walk back to the hotel they were staying at even though it was barely warm enough to go outside without a jacket. Lucifer had been too caught up in memorizing the boy's smile to notice the darkening clouds, and then the first few droplets of water landed on the boy's skin._

 _Gabriel Bennett had stopped and looked down at his hand, where he felt the first drop land on his fair skin. At the second – or maybe third – drop, he looked up at the gray sky. His smile changed, and Lucifer found that it was different from all the others he'd seen on the boy's face._

 _The boy must have seen the confusion on his face, felt the question brushing against his consciousness, because he turned his brown gaze over to Lucifer's projection. "The rain. It reminds me of you."_

Lucifer still didn't completely understand the boy's comparison. He could easily tell how the boy had associated Lucifer to some of the water's aspects, but that could never explain why the boy had smiled at the thought. Nor could it explain the joy he felt – still relatively early into the six months they'd spent doing as they'd pleased, when it would still be another month before the boy finally admitted aloud that Lucifer made him happy. Truly happy. More than anyone else who wasn't a part of his family.

Even standing outside of the Bunker and listening to the soft _pitter-patter_ of the rain hitting the ground and already-formed puddles, Lucifer still didn't understand.

 _They were caught in the rain on purpose this time. The boy had "missed the feeling," or so he'd said. Perhaps it had been a good thing that they were in the middle of nowhere. Lucifer had been able to see out of the boy's eyes – the gray sky filled with heavy clouds and the water that fell like tears. He'd heard the distant rumble of thunder filter through the boy's ears and had tasted the water in the air._

 _For once, he felt like he was home._

Lucifer was already soaking wet by the time he sat down on the cold concrete. A funny thought tickled the back of his mind. This was where he and Gabriel had sat to watch a sunrise, where they decided that maybe they could have their happy ending after all. And it had been happy, for a while. It was miserable right now, but it wasn't like their time was over yet. It was never over.

Looking upwards, Lucifer squinted as some of the rain fell onto his face, splashing onto his nose and cheeks and into his eyes. He liked this. It was… relaxing, soothing. He didn't need to think, just feel. At some point he closed his eyes and lost himself in the hypnotic sounds and soft touches of the rain.

 **~o-O-o~**

His wrists were starting to hurt again, which was expected, considering all of the reports that he typed day in and day out. At this point, he was legitimately considering getting a brace just for him to be able to tell his partner that he had in fact attempted to do something about his carpal tunnel. He leaned back in his chair, flexing his fingers and gently stretching all of the muscles and tendons in his hands and wrists.

It was too early in the morning to have his wrists hurting already. Grey eyes flickered over to the clock at the bottom right hand corner of his computer screen. Okay, so it was just past midday. Still too early for him to be feeling the burning pain his in wrists.

"Hungry?"

He looked up, tensing only to relax (slightly) at seeing the only other person on base. "Don't you know how to knock?"

"I had thought I'd made my presence rather noticeable, but then again, you were in your own little world for a while there."

The impulse to roll his eyes was barely kept at bay. They weren't friends… not really. It wasn't a compatibility thing – more that neither of them were suited to have friends, especially considering their 'jobs'. And yet, they were probably the closest that either could have to an actual friend. He never dwelled on the thought long enough to decide if that was a good or a bad thing.

Nevertheless, he let out a sigh, gesturing for his co-worker to put the plate of hot food down on the one corner of his desk that was paper free. "I have a new mission for you," he told the other once his 'friend' had moved back a respectable distance from his work space.

"Good. That is, as long as it gives me a break from those blasted fairies."

"Then I suppose you'll be glad to hear it's a werewolf."

The other man's grin was positively feral. Sometimes he questioned whether or not his partner was actually human. He already knew the man wasn't normal – no one with his skill set could ever be considered _normal_ , not even in their lifestyle. Lady Bevell claimed that the other was a psychopath, and while he hadn't ruled out that comment as fact, he rather thought the other man just only acted like a _person_ around a very specific group of people. The man was amiable enough around him.

"Ah, yes. Something I can call a true hunt."

No, there was definitely something _not human_ about his co-worker. He just couldn't quite place what it was though. "You'll be leaving soon then, Ketch?"

"Do try to have another ready for me soon, Mick. I'll be back before you know it."

Sometimes, that was what Mick Davies was most afraid of.

 **~o-O-o~**

Occasionally, Lucifer didn't have nightmares. Instead of those subconscious memories, his mind would be filled with echoes of a time before _everything_. They're tales of a forgotten age. Whispers that told tales of fantasy and legend – of something that had once been simply truth. But when he woke, he forgot those dreams. They slipped away just like the nightmares did. In the midst of his world of hurt, it would have been nice to be able to remember those dreams. Even if they caused more pain just by existing.

Lucifer could remember, though. Unlike the gaps in his memory from _what happened_ , he could remember those times from before. They were from the beginning of his life, his existence. But they were still clear as day. He just had to let his mind drift back, let it blank out so those impossible images could fill the void.

He missed it.

He missed that time when time had no meaning. He missed the simplicity – how there wasn't a right or a wrong. There simply _was_. And it was just them. Their little family.

Lucifer could see it, sometimes, in his new family – the one that was so similar yet so different from his first family. He could see his brothers in Sam and Dean, human though they were. He found a parent in Mary that he'd never thought to have. And while Castiel and Gabriel couldn't ever be as close to him as Lucifer had once been to Michael, he sought and received comfort in his brothers' presence.

Left alone, Lucifer lost himself to thoughts like these – they gave him peace, a calm state of mind that he couldn't seem to find during any other time.

Maybe it was the rain.

 **~o-O-o~**

Castiel tried not to worry too much when Lucifer didn't come back inside after two hours. He told himself that, no, he hadn't looked at the phone Dean had given to him ten times in the past six minutes – three hours after Lucifer had suddenly blurted out that he was going outside. Another three hours passed by without Castiel wanting them to.

Sam had expressively told him that if he needed anything or if Lucifer was having _problems_ , to call them no matter what.

Seven hours. Castiel found himself glancing over to his cellphone again. Mary was in the library, probably reading the Men of Letters' books or catching up on recent news. Lucifer was still outside. At the eight hour mark, Castiel decided that (at the very least) he should try to check on Lucifer before calling. He didn't have to go very far once exiting the Bunker.

The rain had stopped, though the sky was still gray and water was nearly flooding the ground just past the hard concrete. Castiel couldn't hear anything except for the soft _crunch_ of his footsteps as he walked forward to get a better view of Lucifer, who sat on top of the Bunker's entrance. It was as if the world had gone quiet, silently waiting for Castiel to initiate a conversation with the once graceful and all-mighty being before him.

"You'll get a cold, sitting out here with your clothes wet."

Lucifer didn't even twitch. The parts of his grace that Castiel could see behind that unexplainable fog which shrouded Lucifer's presence flickered with recognition. Light blue eyes slowly blinked open, drawing themselves down until they met a deeper shade of blue. It took another minute for true awareness to take root in those eyes, but Castiel felt a rush of _something_ stir in his own grace.

"I might be the closest an angel can get to being human, but we both know that I don't get _sick_ ," Lucifer finally responded.

It was true. Despite having to eat and sleep and hydrate and take care of his hygiene, Lucifer hadn't once shown that he could fall ill. In fact, he appeared to heal at a rate much faster than a human would – most likely due to still having his grace within him, even if it was inaccessible. The… _wounds_ on his back had become only scars within the first week after they'd been inflicted. And while the Winchesters had been concerned about the chance of the holes in Lucifer's back becoming infected, they hadn't needed to worry.

Small miracles were precious commodities.

Lucifer was staring at him, blinking every so often, and Castiel was struggling to figure out what to say next, just standing there in the middle of a puddle. What could he say? He wanted to ask Lucifer to come back inside, but it didn't seem right. Not with the way Lucifer radiated contentedness out here. And so, Castiel stayed silent, merely watching as puffs of white crystalized air left Lucifer's lungs whenever he breathed.

Eventually Lucifer sneezed, breaking the calm between them. The fallen archangel let out an aggravated groan and then sniffled, wiping a hand under his nose. Those light blue eyes shifted off to the side, glancing up before looking back to Castiel.

"I think I missed lunch," Lucifer mumbled, knowing that Castiel would still hear him.

Castiel felt the comings of a smile forming on his face. "You didn't eat breakfast either."

"What time is it… exactly?"

"Just past three in the afternoon," Castiel informed him.

"Um…" Lucifer rubbed his forehead with his other hand. "Snack and then dinner sometime afterwards?"

That smile was rather insistent. Castiel reached into one of his trench coat's pockets and pulled out a granola bar, waving it at Lucifer to get his brother's attention before tossing it up to him. Lucifer caught it (only Lucifer and Castiel would ever know that he almost _didn't_ catch it) and unwrapped the chocolate covered protein bar, taking a bite out of it after glaring at it for a second. Castiel waited for Lucifer to finish his snack, planning on directing him inside afterwards. But Lucifer didn't make any move to do so. The angel shifted on his feet before acting on impulse to go up and sit beside his older brother. It was also on impulse that Castiel spoke up again.

"I understand that our circumstances aren't the same, but talking about it, any of it, could help..." Castiel started, inwardly cringing at how 'chick-flick' he sounded. Or so Castiel had been told by Dean when he tried to do the same to him once.

Lucifer tensed, relaxing in small increments until he frowned – as if he'd just remembered something important that he really should have known before. "You had your grace taken..."

Castiel's brow contorted into a frown of his own at the reminder. "I became fully human for a while, yes," he responded with a slight inclination of his head.

A dark look entered Lucifer's eyes, chasing away the easy light that had filled them only minutes ago.

"So you felt it, then? The hollowness? That _soul_ deep ache?"

Castiel slowly nodded. "It's not pleasant, grace or not."

"I'm tired, Castiel."

Taking Lucifer's words as a dismissal, Castiel gained a saddened look. "We don't have to talk if you don't want to."

"No, no—" Lucifer quickly interrupted, correcting Castiel's assumption. "This helps. It does a little bit, I guess."

Castiel smiled.

* * *

 **A/N: I am taking some liberties with the BMOL because of plot reasons…**

 **Anyways, kudos to anyone who recognized a certain OC from the last chapter. I put in a scene with her mainly for some context as to what's going on in Heaven at the moment, and also because someone reviewed in my** _ **City of Angels**_ **fic that I should have a crossover with some of the characters from that fic… well, this is as close as that would ever get, considering that a lot of the characters from that story are OCs** **–** **Kemuel being the main one. If you haven't read** _ **City of Angels**_ **, just know that she's… let's just say fond of the archangels and some of her younger angelic siblings think that she should be in a relationship with Gabriel. But whatever.**

 **Reviews? Comments? Questions?**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]


	12. Far Beyond My Reach

**Chapter 11**

 **Far Beyond My Reach**

When they arrived in the main town that hosted the fae murders, Sam told Gabriel to either stay at the hotel room that Dean had gotten for the next few days or go do a bit of snooping around without causing undo attention. Only these two options were given because Gabriel still looked like a thirteen-year-old. Dean had agreed with Sam about not bringing a 'kid' along to a crime scene or to the sheriff's department.

At first, Gabriel had done the first option, fine with waiting for Sam and Dean to go on and do whatever they did while they pretended to be FBI agents. Then several hours passed, and he started to get bored. A bored Gabriel was never good. Of course, due to the circumstances, bored Gabriel did not equate to Trickster Gabriel. No, Gabriel was quickly borderlining high anxiety.

He couldn't just _sit still_ and _wait_.

So... What exactly could he do in a town with a population barely reaching ten thousand that classified as 'snooping around without causing undo attention'? Well, he reasoned that since he _did_ look thirteen, he could go to town park where the most recent murder had taken place. Even better, it was like four in the afternoon, so any parents that happened to be around wouldn't be all that suspicious about a middle schooler not being in school.

Mind made up, Gabriel left the hotel room – and seriously, Dean would have chosen the motel if Gabriel hadn't complained _very loudly_ about the possibility of bed bugs and gross smells and moldy ceilings and/or walls and horrible reception. Gabriel figured that he should be back before the Winchesters returned and didn't bother leaving a note or anything like it. Not like Sam and Dean would freak out because Gabriel wasn't in the hotel room if they did happen to get back before Gabriel did. And on the off chance that they broke his expectations (which they did, more often than not – which probably wasn't a good thing), Gabriel would be back before they knew it. Probably. Like, more than likely. Definitely.

The park was quiet. Kind of like the whole town was, really. Gabriel had bet there'd be at least one family that still went to the park even after the unexplainable murder (well, unexplainable to _them_ ). But no. No one was there, leaving the park deserted and looking like something out of a cliché horror movie. The dead grass and bare branches he could understand – it was still pretty much winter in this part of the world. There was even a breeze that was strong enough to push the swings on the swing set, causing the chains to creak eerily. It didn't help that the place felt _dead_. Nope. Not creepy. Not creepy at all.

Using a quick burst of grace, Gabriel double-checked that there weren't any humans around (adult, child or otherwise). And just like he'd correctly observed, there weren't any, not within spying distance anyway. There was something else though – something like a... residual magic signature. If there was any doubt that this was in fact a series of fae murders, it was gone now.

Gabriel moved closer to the last remnants of magic that had belonged to the now-very-dead fairy. He was faintly curious as to why there had been so many fairies in one place. Surely Oberon knew better than to send so many of his people to Earth. Even just five of the fae race was more than normal for them, as they usually only sent one fairy along to accompany the pixies and gnomes and trolls and goblins and leprechauns. Then again, Oberon was getting rather old for a fairy. If Gabriel remembered correctly, the average life span of a fairy was about three thousand years, and Oberon should be around three thousand and five hundred years old... give or take. And while that wasn't necessarily retirement age for High King of the Fae, if Oberon hadn't already picked out a suitable candidate for the next High King, he would need to soon.

It took Gabriel a little longer than it should have to remember the rest of the fae royalty. First there was Titania, Orberon's wife and High Queen of the Fae. Supposedly, the next in line for those titles would be Oberon's children, except he didn't have any – none that were legitimate anyway. Then there were the kings and queens that ruled over the Pixies' Isles, the Woodlands, the Glades and the Sacred Forest. Gabriel was pretty sure that King Harlequin and Lady Quintessa – who were neither related nor married to each other despite what their titled positions suggested – were the likely candidates for becoming the next High Rulers of the Fae. It would either be those two or Queen Clarion and Lord Milori. Unless there was someone new in charge of the Woodlands or maybe the Glades, though the rulers of those areas of Avalon were relatively new themselves.

An unnatural gust of wind tore Gabriel from his thoughts. The magic radiating off of the new being in the park told the archangel that this was definitely _not_ an angel. No... It was another fairy.

And there was no mistaking that magic signature she'd made by teleporting to the park. If that hadn't tipped him off, it would have been her colorful petal dress, though it looked different than the last time he'd seen her – more suited to be on Earth than in Avalon. Oh, if _she_ had personally come here because of the fae murders, something was very wrong.

"Queenie?!" Gabriel exclaimed, startling the fairy queen.

Quintessa scowled at Gabriel as soon as she recognized him, which was admittedly a lot quicker than he had recognized her. " _Trickster_? What are _you_ doing here?"

"I could ask the same of you," he replied with the same speed she had whipped out her question.

Gabriel didn't correct her calling him what she had. The last time he'd been in Avalon, he had still been moonlighting as the Norse Trickster, and before that he'd simply been a trickster that meddled with the fae people's affairs more than he probably should have. Of course, given the fae's nature in general, being a trickster was not a bad thing.

The fairy let out a dignified scoff, though her scowl was now gone, replaced by something not unlike fondness. "If you must know, the Fae Court has ordered our kin's deaths to be investigated. So many killings within such a short amount of time worry the High King and Queen," she told him, dropping into a sorrowful air as she glanced back to where the other fairy had been killed not a week ago.

"Someone hunted my people down, Trickster," Quintessa continued in her lilting and accented voice, her violet eyes now pointedly staring at the ground. "Perhaps if their deaths had been warranted, we could find peace. However, the fae have been careful these past years. Mischief makers we may be, but recently we've not involved ourselves in human affairs for the sake of harm. Oberon issued a law to keep us from coming to Earth unless our presence is requested."

Gabriel frowned. He had suspected as such about the murders, but he hadn't known about Oberon's decree. It made the killings all the more unwarranted. It also lead him to believe that the killer might be different from the person who summoned the fairies here. There was something else going on – something that went much deeper than a few fae murders.

"Shouldn't you be watching your back then?" he asked seriously. If the killer was still here then—

But Quintessa was already shaking her head. "Oberon had recalled all of us, fairy or otherwise, back to Avalon, and my coming here was rather discreet. You know how talented I am at the mystical arts, Trickster. I suspect you wouldn't have known I was here if you didn't know me or didn't have your… more _graceful_ skills."

Well, that was subtle of her. "Queenie…" he tried to start before she cut him off.

"Come now, Gabriel. _Everyone_ important knows who you really are now," she said with a roll of her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "Besides, this is a good thing. You associate with the Winchesters nowadays, no?"

"Well, I wouldn't say—"

She glared at him. "It's a simple question: yes or no?"

"Yes," he answered flatly.

The fairy queen brightened brilliantly at his answer. "Then that explains the faint magic I sense coming from that car over there," she exclaimed excitedly, clapping her hands together in a dainty manner.

Car? Gabriel looked behind him to where Quintessa had her gaze locked onto something that had piqued her interest… And it _would_ be Sam and Dean. Had they followed him? Gabriel would have found that notion very offensive if he hadn't realized that the sun was starting to get low in the sky. Freakin' fae teleportation magic and its uncanny ability to mess with not just space but also time.

He let out a long-suffering sigh before turning back to Quintessa. "You might want to tone down on the glowing you've got going on," he commented right before he waved the Winchesters over.

Dean got out of the Impala first, obviously having been the one spying on Gabriel while Sam took another minute to go over something on his tablet/laptop – whatever he happened to be using. When the two made it over to where Gabriel stood, Quintessa was looking decently human. Her eyes still gave her away. So did her hair. And her dress. And her wings. And the way she was hovering a couple inches off the ground.

"Uh, Gabriel… Who is she?" Sam asked cautiously. At least _he_ was trying to be subtle about his staring unlike Dean who wasn't even bothering to cover up the way he eyed Quintessa.

"Ya might wanna give her a little bow, Sam-a-lam. She's fae royalty," Gabriel told him with a wriggle of his brows, smirking at Sam's jaw-drop reaction (Dean's, too). Dramatically clearing his throat, Gabriel introduced them. "Chuckleheads, this is the Fairy Queen of the Sacred Forest and Protector of the Fountain of Youth, Lady Quintessa. Queenie, these two are Sam and Dean Winchester, hunters extraordinaire."

Sam dipped his head a bit in a small bow while Dean's eyebrows met his hairline. Quintessa let out a soft giggle, covering her mouth with both of her hands. Gabriel inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Queenie found Sam and Dean's reactions more amusing than offensive. That would always be a good thing. Because Dad forbid you ever offend a fairy. Gabriel mentally shook himself – _bad memories_.

The fairy queen turned to Gabriel suddenly, a string of words in her native tongue flowing from her lips as she asked him if the hunters might help her. Gabriel mulled over the probable answer. It wasn't like Sam and Dean had any reason to _not_ help her out. He told her as such in the same language she'd asked him in, though he was a bit rusty and the words didn't come out quite as fluid as hers had.

Still, she smiled and looked back to the two humans, who were now less staring and more frowning. "Word has it that you Winchesters are good at solving problems, no?"

"Well," Dean started after a moment and a shared glance with Sam. "That depends on the problem… ma'am."

Gabriel let a smirk cross his face at Dean's quickly added nicety. How thoughtful of him. Too bad Queenie didn't really care for those kinds of things. Not that Gabriel was about to drop Dean a hint. Nah, better to watch him figure it out for himself. Oh, this was gonna be good.

"You see, under the interference laws that were recently established by the High King of the Fae, the murders of my kin were undoubtedly illegal. I would find their killer myself; however, using magic would most likely end in my own death and going about it the human way would be a little… complicated," she concluded with a shy glance to the side, her wings flittering in another expression of the emotion.

Fairy wings. Very different from angel wings, though the concept of them was about the same. By concept, he meant how closely a fairy's wings were tied to their being. The main difference between fairies' and angels' wings being that while a fairy was effectively grounded after losing their wings, they could still use magic like they normally would. The same couldn't be said about angels.

Another big difference: fairy wings came in all different shapes and sizes and colors and transparency. The trend seemed to favor similarities to dragonfly (on the males) and butterfly (with the females) wings. Sometimes the fairy's wings were a mix, which either turned out to be a good look or a not-so-good look for the fairy. Quintessa's wings were not unlike a glasswing butterfly – having a design of prismatic lines that accented the reflective transparency at the centers of her wings, all surrounded by a violet stained-glass-like outline.

"Yeah," Sam huffed in a wary yet awed fashion. Gabriel couldn't blame him. Queenie was his favorite of the fae for a reason. "So… what? Dean and I run point while you help with the magical aspects of the case?"

"What am I? Chopped liver?" Gabriel grumbled, crossing his arms when he was ignored – by Sam and Dean anyway; Quintessa shot him a brief flash of a smile.

"As long as I have some freedoms with what I get to do, your terms are fine," the fairy queen told Sam, her smile turning on him before her eyes went dark. "Thought I must warn you, I will not tolerate any sort of hindrance in finding my people's murderer."

Somehow, Sam and Dean didn't argue with that, and eventually they all made it back to the hotel room. Well, _rooms_ now since Dean figured it would be a bit awkward to have four people staying in one room that was only meant for two in the first place. That being said, Sam and Dean were in the original room the older Winchester had paid for, and Gabriel and Quintessa were in the other, which was coincidentally right across the hall.

A day later had them no where, and it wasn't looking good. The Winchesters had a possible suspect on the person who had been summoning the fairies, but nothing on a murder suspect. It was very possible that the murder had already left town. That still left the fairy summoner.

Quintessa was taking things rather well – after all, when one's just over two thousand years old, one tends to build a ton of patience (not that some angels turned out to be patient beings, but who keeps track of that stuff). And it wasn't like she had a time limit on how long she could stay on Earth. It was just an unspoken thing that the sooner the summoner and murderer were caught, the better.

But the day after that wound up with Gabriel calling his little angel bro. Quintessa was talking logistics about possible suitable summoning locations that were further outside of the town or something with Sam and Dean, which left Gabriel with some down time to himself.

Castiel finally picked up, a bit of crackling coming over the phone before the angel spoke up. "Gabriel?"

"Heya, Cassie!" Gabriel greeted his little brother with a forced enthusiasm. "I'm calling to let you guys know that it's looking like this case will take the boys and I a bit longer than we thought…" he trailed off, biting his bottom lip and hoping that he wouldn't have to elaborate.

"I see," Castiel murmured, sounding like he was looking back somewhere over his shoulder.

"So, uh, how's Lucifer doing?" Gabriel asked somewhat hesitantly, awkwardly.

A huff of breath broke through the speaker. "Well, we're going to watch The Greatest Showman after lunch. I mean, he's been doing fine."

Gabriel shoved aside the feeling that Castiel wasn't being completely honest with him. "That musical movie that came out in December, huh? So you found the discs I left?"

"They were hard to ignore, Gabriel," Castiel replied. He probably rolled his eyes. Hmm, Cassie had definitely rolled his eyes.

"Just— Just keep an eye on him, Castiel," Gabriel asked of his brother. "Please."

"Always, brother," Castiel assured him before ending the call.

Gabriel let out a tired sigh, putting the smartphone down on the bed. After a moment of nothing but staring at the blank wall, he dropped his upper body down on the bed, too, his head missing the pillow and landing a few inches shy of the folded back part of the bed sheets. This left him staring at the ceiling, which was quite possibly even more boring than just staring at the wall.

He lifted his legs up onto the bed and rolled over on his side, covering his eyes with an arm. Letting time and the world pass him by, Gabriel didn't notice Quintessa come into the room and gently sit herself down beside him until she rested an undemanding hand on his shoulder. She didn't speak, didn't make any movement that called for him to get up. She just sat there, her quiet presence reaching out but waiting for him to meet her halfway.

At some point, he gathered the willpower to shift his hand to rest on top of the one she had on his shoulder. Another length of time passed before she spoke, but when she did, it was still in that undemanding way, that calm air she had wrapped around herself.

"I won't ask what happened, but we all know something did," she told him softly in her native tongue, the words flowing over him like ocean waves lapping up on the shoreline. "I can see it in the way you hold yourself when no one's watching. I can see it in your eyes when something reminds you of it. Whatever it is, I want you to know that it is done. For the sake of your family and yourself, I'm telling you, let it go."

Gabriel didn't turn to look at her, and his arm still mostly covered up his face. He couldn't make himself face her either way. "It's not that simple."

"It never is. _Soneri ya._ " _Trust me._

" _So nahe, vina sterli_." _In you, most always._

Her other hand reached up and brushed some of his hair back in a petting motion, which Gabriel found more soothing than anything. If he were to glance back at her, he would have seen the look she was giving him. But he didn't want to see. He didn't need to do so to know.

"To the few who trust you absolutely and you trust in turn, the ones who know you, Gabriel… _ne sadi enuchidu viri ko miyu_ ," she whispered. _You have your heart free for them to see._

"There are only so many who should be able to see when I fall apart."

Another stroke of a hand through his hair. "Have you?"

"Dunno. Not sure," he answered shortly, focused more on the hand than any of the words. He wondered if this was what it was like when he helped Lucifer through one of his headaches.

" _Leste me vif soneha, secro lidenyo lesu veha mifesi vra neha._ "

 _Speak to your inner self, and you will have the answer that eludes this you._

With a gentle hand that steadily pulled him towards oblivion, Gabriel was asleep before he could decide he had translated her words correctly. Quintessa stayed with him throughout the rest of the night and into the next day, directing Sam and Dean's attention elsewhere while she let Gabriel have a conversation he so dearly needed.

* * *

 **A/N: So I wasn't being wholly accurate with the descriptions of Avalon, but with** _ **Supernatural**_ **canon and everything else out there about fairies, I think I can get away with quite a bit. (Also, Queenie's wings really were based on a glasswing butterfly. The specific picture can be found by looking up "butterfly transparent wings rare beautiful" and it should be the second image you see.) And, no, what they were saying at the end was not a real language. I was just putting together letters that should equal what might sound like a cool word and then putting what I wanted it to mean after it.**

 **On a spoiler-free side note (because my best friend who only keeps up with the show as it comes out on Netflix always hates on me when I 'accidentally' let spoilers slip out), my mind was blown when season thirteen episode thirteen came out. Like, I always inwardly hoped that what happened would happened, but not like that. For those of you who have watched the episode, what happened can't really affect this story either way since we went AU during season twelve. ;-)**

Last edited: [December 20, 2018]


	13. Never Out of Sight

**Chapter 12**

 **Never Out of Sight**

The moment Gabriel opened his eyes – the pupils contracting at the light pouring in through window – he immediately shut them again, rolling over and burying his face into the soft pillow. A moment after that, he let out a _kill-me-now_ groan.

"I'm so screwed."

 **~o-O-o~**

Dean was trying not to glare. He was _trying_ , okay? It was just that so much shit had happened in the past month alone (okay, it was closer to two – maybe three, to be honest – months, but who the hell was counting anymore), and he was so _done_.

At one point he had foolishly thought that having Lucifer and Gabriel both settle down in the Bunker would be a good thing, but _nooo_. No, no no. That was just a short term thing. In the long run, Dean had to put up with just as much crap as he usually did, albeit with less apocalyptic bullshit going on. _What happened_ was the ultimate taker for number one of the things-that-Dean-shouldn't-have-to-deal-with-right-now at the moment, but _this_ was coming hot on its heels as a close second.

It was probably a very good thing that Sam was there to help Dean keep his cool. It was still a very close thing. At least the hot fairy queen was gone. While she had left with a devious smirk that meant no good whatsoever, she had told them that since they had caught the person who'd been summoning her people, she was assured that Sam and Dean could find the killer and put a stop to him (or her) as well without her needing to be around. It was kinda cool to have a vote of confidence from a fairy queen, but then Sam had gone to check on Gabriel. That's when they learned about the 'favor' she'd done for them regarding Gabriel.

Dean knew, _he knew_ it had been a bad idea to let Gabriel go do his own thing during the case. But every time he'd walked across the hall and knocked on the door, Quintessa – _Queenie_ , she'd insisted (that's what all her friends called her) – had told them that either Gabriel was out or he was otherwise unavailable. Apparently that was code for in-a-coma and/or having-another-existential-crisis. And the aftermath was what they were left with.

Maybe it was just _a thing_ nowadays for Sam and Dean to be left with the fallout of some important potentially-world-changing shit. It couldn't possibly be that the universe simply hated them, could it?

"This is awkward."

"A little, yeah," Dean bit out, eyes narrowing at the boy nervously sitting on the bed.

" _Dean_ ," Sam said warningly.

Dean rolled his eyes, forcing himself to shake the tension out of his body, and then picked up a pen from the desk only to focus on releasing the rest of his frustration in increments by fiddling with the pen. This was ridiculous. He was going to have either a heart attack or an aneurism or both by the end of the year if this kept up.

"I can explain? Sort of."

" _Please_ do." That earned a full on smack against his arm from Sam. "Take your time," he added with a forced smile.

Sam let out a weary sigh – more than likely just as done as Dean was, though he was doing a much better job of not directing it at anyone. "Gabriel, just start whenever you're ready."

And, see? The real kicker that had Dean so riled up was that it wasn't Gabriel the archangel looking at them shyly; it was _Gabriel Bennett_. Brown eyes, mostly timid demeanor, childish innocence, and all.

"I'm not really sure _where_ to start," the boy admitted with a slight blush, looking pointedly down at his hands that he carefully placed in the center of his lap.

Sam frowned. "What do you remember last?" he prompted as Dean settled himself against the wall space next to the door.

"Well, um, it's all kind of fuzzy, but I'm aware of the past eight months." Brown eyes glanced to the right, and small hands were fidgeting, pulling at the hem of his shirt. "I know Lucifer doesn't have his wings anymore."

Dean felt like he'd been punched in the gut at the bluntness of the statement. He'd forgotten just how _insightful_ Gabriel Bennett could be, that he wasn't just a thirteen-year-old kid. And for some reason, that one little important tidbit of a fact hurt. Sam's barely hidden grimace told Dean his little brother wasn't that much better off.

"I— Gabriel is kind of messed up over it. I think Quintessa figured that out and thought letting him— that part of me rest for a while would help," the boy continued, more or less oblivious of Sam and Dean's reactions. "She did something to let me take over without destroying this body while he fixed himself up. And no, I don't know how long that might take."

"Wait— hold on. So you're _you_?" Dean interrupted, waving a hand at Gabriel's seated entirety.

"Yes?"

Dean felt a scowl starting to form again. "That's not a great confidence builder there, kid."

"Uh, yes, I'm me," he amended, looking a bit lost. "But I'm still Gabriel, too. Just not _all_ of him."

"You already were a part of him," Sam pointed out.

"Yes and no," the boy started slowly before huffing frustratedly. "Look, I don't completely understand it either. I just know that I'm me, right here, right now. And I'm _not_ a fully powered archangel that knows everything and can take on the whole world by myself."

"Well," Dean drawled the word out, finally setting down the pen. He could deal with this later. "We still have to take care of few things in town. Sam you can stay with Gabriel while I do that stuff, and as soon as I get back, we're heading straight to the Bunker. Got it?"

 **~o-O-o~**

Sometimes Mick wondered how exactly he ended up here. Oh, it was definitely by his own hand (quite literally; how was he – _a child at that point in time_ – supposed to have known that the coin was cursed, not to mention Babylonian?) that he'd become part of the Men of Letters, but he should have died that day with the alpha vampire. Somehow, Ketch had gotten back to their base just in time to save him, and only him – fortunately and unfortunately.

They had both gotten into trouble with Dr. Hess, though Mick had been in deeper water than Ketch had. Even then, Ketch got him out of the frying pan and away from the fire (unless one were to label the United States of America as the fire; then they would both be in the fire). Mick had been moderately surprised that Dr. Hess actually agreed to send both of them back, especially since he'd messed up so horribly the first time around.

Bevell said it was because Ketch had used his 'charm' and that Mick was only dragged along because even the Old Men knew not to send Ketch anywhere without _someone_ to keep an eye on his activities. Which essentially meant that in Toni's magnanimous opinion, Mick was a glorified babysitter. Not that he would ever tell Ketch that. Mick didn't feel like getting skinned alive.

Though, to be honest, he wasn't sure that Ketch would actually do that. At least, not to him… as long as Ketch was in a good mood. Mick wasn't going to test that theory. He liked life the way it was.

Well, he supposed it could be better, in a way. He certainly hadn't been getting anywhere as a child pickpocket, but there were times when he wasn't having nightmares while he slept— times when he had the occasional, deep and buried thought that this wasn't it. Whatever _this_ and _it_ was, he wasn't going to bring it up to anyone else. But he could swear that Ketch knew whenever Mick had one of those nights.

Sometimes Mick hated that Ketch seemed to understand those nights more than he ever could.

 **~o-O-o~**

"Come on, we'll get some dinner at that one restaurant on the outskirts of town."

"I thought we were going straight back to the Bunker— _your words_."

"Shut up and get in the car."

 **~o-O-o~**

Lucilia let out a frustrated growl as she had to erase half of the drawing once more. The other half she was rather content with. It had turned out almost perfectly – and there could only be _almost_ perfect because nothing was perfect – but the wings refused to just look right by the time she finally had the lines down.

Rachel, one of her new friends, had told Lucilia that she was getting obsessive, but Lucilia insisted that she could get it right next time. That was four attempts ago. But Lucilia couldn't let the drawing end up looking _wrong_. Even if no one else could tell, she would be able to, and that was what mattered. Still… she _did_ have a few other works she needed to finish before the end of the week.

Mr. Redfield had actually looked excited about the fact that Lucilia didn't seem to mind how odd he was sometimes, and she really didn't mind making the pictures he asked her to draw (and it had nothing to do with how he paid her to make some of them). Everyone else town just avoided him as he was the strange newcomer, so she was the one who had to remind him that he did in fact have to go out and get groceries in order to have something to eat if he wasn't going to go to one of the local restaurants.

He didn't usually ask for the drawings, but when he did, he'd get this weird look in his eyes before telling her what he'd like them to be of. Lucilia wasn't all that picky about what she was told to draw – _"Lucy can draw anything," her four friends bragged_ – and the requests were simple enough to do.

And she was trying. To make more friends like Gabriel had 'subtly' implied the last time she'd seen him almost three months ago. To keep moving on with her 'normal' life even though she knew that her brother was an archangel and there was _so much more_ out there. To be there for her mom, who was still barely hanging in there for her because Lucilia was all she had left.

Lillian and her parents helped. Lucilia liked being able to stay with her cousin and aunt and uncle while her mom was still recovering from the loss of her son. Her relatives were understanding, and Lucilia got along with Lillian especially well since they were practically the same age. Just having someone there helped.

"Hey, Lucy!" Lillian called to her from out in the hallway, her shoes pounding on the flooring as she ran down to their shared playroom.

"What?" Lucilia called back. She took the time to start putting her drawing materials away since she knew that Lillian would more than likely want to go to the park that wasn't that far of a walking distance away from the house.

Panting slightly and looking like she'd just run all the way here from outside, which she probably had, Lillian skidded to a halt in the doorway. "Mom and Dad said there's someone asking for you," she said, her eyes bright with her eternal curiosity.

Lucilia frowned, tilting her head to the side. "Did they say who?"

Lillian shook her head but beckoned Lucilia with a wild hand gesture to follow her as she started back to the front of the house. Lucilia was compelled to follow either way. Obviously, whomever it was happened to be someone that Lillian had never met, so it wasn't Gabriel since Lucilia knew that her cousin had seen the archangel once when he'd visited to check up on her. (Lillian could be sneaky when she wanted to be, so there was always the possibility that she really had gotten a good look of Gabriel during aforementioned visit.)

So when Lucilia stepped outside and onto the porch to find Aunt Liz and Uncle Chris nervously waiting for her to arrive. There was man with them, a man in a dark suit. He wasn't exactly what she would call intimidating, but even she could tell that he was why her aunt was telling Lillian to go back inside now. As Liz herded Lillian away – _to somewhere safer_ – Chris moved to stand closer to Lucilia.

"He wants to talk with you alone, is that okay?" he asked in a low murmur, placing a protective hand on her shoulder. After a tense moment of thought, she nodded, and he gave her a concerned look before telling her, "I'll be just inside if you need me."

Lucilia bit her bottom lip but nodded once more. Chris squeezed her shoulder and then retreated back to the house, leaving her alone with the guy in the suit. She didn't like this. Not one bit. She especially didn't like how he was looking at her as if he were appraising a new luxury item.

"Hello there, darling," the man – _not a man_ _–_ said at last in a British drawl. "The name's Crowley. Your brother sent me."

 **~o-O-o~**

Sam glanced at the rearview mirror for the fifth time in about two minutes. He wasn't trying to be a creeper or anything. It was just that… Gabriel – asleep with his head resting against the window as he was – looked more at peace than the archangel ever had, relieved of tension that always seemed to be resting on the archangel's shoulders.

Sam hadn't really gotten to know Gabriel Bennett as well as Dean and Mary had, but Sam knew Gabriel. Admittedly, Sam hated the archangel way back when for reasons that Sam had gotten over not long after the archangel had died for them. For Sam, it had only really clicked – _understanding Gabriel as a whole_ _–_ when Gabriel and Lucifer had come back inside the Bunker after having a heart-to-heart and deciding that they would both stay. And while Sam had still been pissed at Gabriel for messing with his hair, Sam realized then that Gabriel – for all of the masks the archangel put on and how many he had taken off for Lucifer – was still way hiding himself away.

Behind it all, behind every last wall that the archangel had built to keep everyone out, there was a piece of himself that he'd torn out thousands of years ago because he couldn't take it anymore, only to have gotten it back for a little over a year now. Gabriel Bennett was perhaps the closest one could get to the human representation of the archangel's innermost self, a patchwork of layer upon layer of soul on top of the center grace that _felt_ so implicitly. If it was the boy who was in control right now, then Gabriel must have been far worse off about _what happened_ than he'd been letting on. The universe must truly hate the archangels if they had ended up this broken after finally coming back together.

A sudden illumination of the backseat drew Sam's eyes back to the rearview mirror. Sam wondered if Dean had hit a bump or two in the road while he had more or less zoned out because while he remembered that Gabriel wasn't necessarily a light sleeper, there weren't many other reasons that the kid would have woken up at… 3:28 in the morning. The main reason Sam was still up was because of his nerves about getting back to the Bunker. If Dean wasn't awake, then they'd be in trouble since he was the one driving. But Gabriel didn't need to be awake yet.

And yet Gabriel was doing something on his phone. Then the boy bit back what could have only been a giggle. Dean glanced back at that but went back to driving when he took note that Gabriel was up. Sam, on the other hand, stared at the growing grin on the kid's face.

Sam was still staring when Gabriel looked up at him, scooting over on the seat to Sam's side of the car. Knowing that he already had Sam's attention, Gabriel leaned forward to whisper in Sam's ear. "Hey, Sam… It's the tenth of February."

"And?" Sam asked slowly in the same hushed tone, meeting Gabriel's conspiratorial gaze with a questioning one.

"Valentine's Day is coming up," he replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Sam frowned. "So?"

"What're you getting Miss Eileen?"

If Sam had been the one driving, they all would have died horribly due to Sam losing control and driving off the side of the road. "What's that supposed to mean?" he half-sputtered.

"Well, you like her don't you? Like… _like_ her, like her," Gabriel said a bit more loudly, prompting a snort from Dean.

"You could just say _love_ , dork," came Dean's huffed comment from the driver's seat.

"I— _Dean_ ," Sam hissed, glaring at his older brother before returning his gaze back to an innocent looking Gabriel. "How do you even know about us?"

Gabriel's head tilted to the side as he looked off into the distance somewhere over Dean's head. "Thanksgiving Day?" he said, questioning his own answer. He blinked several times, coming out of whatever daze he might have been in, and looked back at Sam. "I do remember some things, you know."

"And you happen to remember that one in full detail?" Sam grumbled, decidedly not pouting as he folded his arms across his chest and stared out of the passenger window.

"Well," Gabriel started somewhat sheepishly, a subtle blush creeping onto his face, "considering that Gabriel was going to offer to drop you two off somewhere nice for a date… yeah, I remember it and the plans rather vividly."

"What plans?" Dean interrupted, sticking his nose where it most certainly didn't be long.

"It's none of your business," Sam snapped.

With a 'what did I do?' expression on his face, Dean lifted one hand up in surrender. "Sheesh, someone's being a snippy bitch."

"Stay out of my private life then, jerk." Sam shot a glance over at a sleepy looking Gabriel, his tone softening as he spoke. "Hey, try to get some more shut eye. We've still got a few more hours to go before we arrive."

Gabriel was out like a light before Sam finished his sentence.

 **~o-O-o~**

Lucifer shifted in his sleep.

There was something there. Something he could feel even with his grace kept out of his reach. Something that couldn't be taken away from him. A bond. One between himself and the boy – forged in an emotion that he'd never been able to fully grasp, one that even now he couldn't quite explain.

It was _grace_ and _soul_ and _power_ and _feeling_. It was everything that could be yet wasn't. An enrapturement brought upon by the desperate need for a connection between two lost beings. It was home.

" _Gabriel…_ "

* * *

 **A/N: I know, there's a lot going on, but it'll all come together soon enough. Trust me. (And I couldn't just let one of the stars from** _ **Be My Guest**_ **just go to waste as a voice in the back of Gabriel's head.)**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]


	14. My Lonely Tower

**Chapter 13**

 **My Lonely Tower**

"I am going to die from the awkwardness of this predicament."

"No, you're not," Sam tried to assure the kid right as Dean said, "Who uses the word _predicament_ anymore?"

Sam rolled his eyes, resting his arm on the back of the seat while he turned sideways to look back at Gabriel, who was nervously picking at the skin along the nailbeds of his fingers. "Gabriel," he tried again, settling an honest expression on his face, "It'll be fine. Cas knows what happened, and he'll have told Mom and Lucifer by now."

"I know," Gabriel mumbled, still fidgeting in his spot, shooting a glance out the window every so often.

Not that there was anything to see. They were already in the Bunker, Dean having parked the Impala in her 'assigned' area several minutes ago. Those minutes had been spent trying to convince the shy boy that the worst that could happen might be tripping and falling on his face while getting from the garage to the library.

Dean swore something under his breath and got out of his car, opening the driver's side backdoor as soon as the driver's door slammed shut. "Come on, if someone takes it badly, I'll talk some sense into 'em while you make a swift retreat to your room. Surely you know where that is."

A bright flush reached Gabriel's cheeks at the teasing jab. "Of course I know where my room is," he shot back, his hands moving to pull and tug at the hem of his shirt.

Still, that was what managed to get Gabriel out of the Impala. Dean led the way as Sam kept up behind Gabriel in an unconscious way of making sure he didn't run off before seeing everyone else. Gabriel didn't really seem to notice, but Dean turned his head to look back over his shoulder once, raising an eyebrow at Sam without voicing a question at the order of their little line.

They saw Castiel first. Their angel friend was sitting at one of the tables with several large books open and spread out before him. Cas looked up when Dean called to him in greeting and moved close to give his friend a warm hug. It hadn't been that long since they'd seen each other – just over a week in total – but after living in the Bunker for so long with everyone, not seeing another for anything over three days was bound to stir some emotions.

"Welcome back, Gabriel," Castiel said cordially, turning his attention to the boy after greeting Sam. "I see that while it is you with us, you still have your grace at your command."

Glancing away, Gabriel gave a small shrug, not bothered by the mostly confusing (to Sam and Dean, anyway) use of pronouns to describe both Gabriel Bennett and Gabriel the archangel. "I can't really doing anything with it."

"Even so, at the very least it means that you won't be hurt easily," Castiel pointed out.

"Physically anyways," Gabriel added on in a mutter before speaking up, "Where's Mary… and Lucifer?"

"I last saw them in the kitchen. I'm surprised there hasn't been a fire yet."

Dean's head snapped up at attention. "You left those two _alone_ , in my kitchen?"

Sam shook his head at Dean's protectiveness of aforementioned room. "Mom and Lucifer wouldn't purposefully destroy the one place we can make food in, Dean," he called to his brother, who was already stomping off towards the hallway leading to the kitchen.

He sighed, rolling his eyes. Aside from his room and the armory, to Dean, the kitchen ranked close to the Impala in terms of his attachment to inanimate things. It was weird, but Sam had long since learned to stop judging his brother for things like that.

"How has he been, Cas?" Gabriel asked the angel quietly in the resulting silence.

Dragging his gaze away from the empty hallway Dean had left in, Castiel turned back to the boy. "I suspect he'll be doing much better now that you're here."

Gabriel winced. "That bad?" he murmured, almost to himself.

Castiel frowned at that but didn't respond. Instead he gestured to Sam, beckoning the Winchester's attention. He then lead Sam a bit further away from Gabriel and closer to the books he had laid out on one of the tables. One of the books in particular stood out from the rest. It was the one Gabriel had snapped up as a gift for bringing him back to life (in a way, anyway) – the index, or _inventory list_ as Gabriel had specified.

"After you informed me about Gabriel, you asked me to see if there was anything in the Bunker that might explain how Quintessa was able to switch out Gabriel's personalities, so to say, without causing any of the damage that Gabriel detailed when talking about it. There wasn't—" Castiel held up a hand to stop Sam from interrupting "—but there was _this_."

Sam's focus was directed to a page in an ancient-looking book, which had writing that he couldn't read or pick out as a language he recognized. Castiel then motioned for Sam to look at a different book that might have been meant to translate the other text; however, the several sheets of paper that had notes written on them with the translations didn't make any sense – going on about something like a star alignment's connection to how clouds formed. Glancing at the other books, Sam noticed that they were from encryption and cryptography sets.

"What's this supposed to be, Cas?" he asked, a confused frown drawing his brows together as he traced a finger down the page of the first book.

Castiel handed him a piece of paper that had what looked like a draft of a final decrypted translation. "I haven't finished yet, but it appears to be a warning."

"That's never good," Sam huffed, his eyes skimming over the paper. They stopped near the end. "Are you sure this is right?"

"I'd have liked Gabriel to check before making any assumptions, but…"

Sam couldn't help but feel frustrated at Castiel's point. Still, Gabriel Bennett said he remembered things from Gabriel, so he might be able to— _Where did he go?_ Sam fully turned around, eyes searching for that obvious blond hair. The kid must have gone after Dean to find Mary and Lucifer, Sam concluded.

It didn't take Castiel long to come to the same observation. Sharing a look, they both sped out of the room, the paper in Sam's hands held firmly in his grasp.

 **~o-O-o~**

There were times in which Mick Davies felt like he didn't belong – not in the traditional sense, but as if he truly was not meant for this life… as if he was living a falsehood. Even if it were true, he couldn't prove it. His life ( _was it really his?_ ) did not belong to him either way. He was owned by the British Chapter of the Men of Letters and had been since he picked that member's pocket.

When those times scratched and clawed at his mind, usually as he was trying to fall asleep or struggling to get out of bed, Mick couldn't help but inwardly cackle at the irony. An irony that he couldn't quite explain. One that made all the sense in the world yet also meant nothing to him whatsoever.

He was as human as they came. He'd graduated from Kendricks with flying colors, and the first assignment that he'd inevitably failed (rather epicly at that) had simply fallen out of his and Ketch's grasp (and was now back in their hands as a second chance neither had the wiggleroom to fail at again). He was just another piece on the board that the Old Men moved about.

 _(He was the first. He had raised his brothers, fought along side them as well as against them. He was—)_

Mick sighed, rubbing his aching head. The headaches had become as much a part of his day as the pain from his carpal tunnel. The persistency of the headaches was new though – none of the usual little pills anything to make them go away.

Ketch had actually offered to go get something 'a bit stronger', but Mick had declined on the basis of not wanting to get addicted to some painkiller that's effects would eventually start to lessen if the headaches didn't go away anytime soon. Ketch had acquiesced to Mick's answer without much argument.

That hadn't kept him from bringing up the headaches every so often – mainly in askance of if they were getting worse. (Which they had, not that Mick was about to start complaining to Ketch; if he couldn't handle a headache that never seemed to go away, then he certainly wouldn't be able to handle anything Ketch threw his way.) On days which the headaches were worse and it was obvious that he couldn't keep it from Ketch, Mick wished that Ketch would bring them up and not be politely oblivious. At least then, he could pretend that there was, in fact, at least one of them who was normal.

 **~o-O-o~**

The kitchen wasn't the detonation site of a nuclear blast when Dean reached it. Mary and Lucifer weren't even in the kitchen. After checking to make sure everything was still in one piece (he had only been half joking when he'd exaggerated his dramatic exit for the kitchen), Dean left the kitchen and overheard Mary softly talking to the wingless archangel. He followed his mom's voice to Lucifer's room.

"… ask him when they get back," Mary was saying as Dean leaned on the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest.

They both had their backs turned to him, not noticing he was there. "Ask who about what?" he inquired, suddenly speaking up.

Lucifer tensed, his head snapping around, and only relaxed once he saw it was Dean. Meanwhile, Mary merely turned just enough to look at Dean out of the corner of her eye. So it had definitely been a private matter he'd walked in on. Oh well. Too late to take anything back now.

"I plan on asking Gabriel something later," was Lucifer's answer after a tense minute.

Dean tried not to read too deeply into how Lucifer only answered after getting a small nod from Mary. Self-confidence and self-esteem were not his areas of expertise. That said, he let it slide but made a mental note of it. Nodding noncommittally, Dean expertly changed the subject to something marginally safer.

"Cas said you finally found a video game you like that's not on your phone."

Lucifer took the bait, rising defensively to the challenge. "I know for a fact that you only play games that grossly exaggerate the women's cleavage…" he trailed off, giving Mary a conspiratorial glance before continuing. "Unless, of course, you're playing something _with Castiel_."

"Hey!" Dean exclaimed, his plan backfiring (in a way). This was not safe territory – not so close to Valentine's Day. Especially if the crap Gabriel gave Sam was any indication… not that Sam and Eileen being a thing was a bad thing. Dean just didn't want the ever-so-'subtle' hints and innuendos spilling over to him too.

Mary had already lightly smacked Lucifer on the arm, causing the depowered archangel to spare her a mock-hurt look as she 'berated' him. It wasn't as if Lucifer had actually done anything wrong, nor had he said anything that wasn't technically true. Dean _did_ play those kinds of games. Just like Lucifer hardly ever bothered to play an actual video game that wasn't on his phone (until now, of course).

"What? I can't roast him when he's asking for one?" Lucifer was complaining. Oddly enough, that was usually a good thing. "How come he gets to provoke me but not have to face my sharp wit?"

"Because I already have to deal with that on a daily basis," Dean muttered in answer, earning a condescending glare.

Lucifer may not have heard the comment as clearly as he used to be able to, but he certainly remembered and knew what that tone implied. "Like I would stoop to that level. It's only every other day."

"Yeah, that's so much better."

"Boys," Mary warned, though she was giving them both fond looks.

Something behind Dean then caught her eye. A slight frown crossed Dean's face before he turned to see Gabriel standing in the hallway, barely three feet away from him. The thought of ' _when did he get there?_ ' warred with ' _since when is he that quiet?_ ' until a mix of the two finally won how.

"Hey, kid, you use those super-secret ninja skills of yours to get here when I wasn't looking?"

Gabriel Bennett, of course, didn't have super-secret ninja skills, and while he wasn't necessarily clumsy, he wasn't the most graceful person in the world either. They all knew it (especially after a certain incident with shoelaces, ketchup, a table, some plates and a couch), so half of Dean's inquiry didn't make much sense. Gabriel's expression conveyed all of this and more – in other words, everything Gabriel thought of Dean's attempted humor… which wasn't much.

And then Gabriel's attention focused on the one being in the Bunker that really mattered to him. Blue and brown pairs of eyes met, and the rest of the world faded away.

Well, for them it did. Dean and Mary were left in the real world to watch the two of them get lost in an awe inspiring, passionate and moving stare (not really, but was this what it was like for Sam when Cas got a bit caught up with Dean in their private messaging through stares?). But, like, it started to get a bit awkward after a solid minute had passed. Dean – out of sheer need to give them some semblance of privacy, _not any sort of embarrassment whatsoever_ _–_ had to look away.

Finally (after what may have felt like hours but couldn't have been more than thirty seconds later), Gabriel blinked and turned his gaze down, though Lucifer continued staring at him. It was almost as if they'd forgotten how to act around each other. Sure, if you were going to get technical, Gabriel Bennett and Lucifer hadn't _truly_ interacted in… eight months? Yeah, eight months, give or take.

"Your hair's longer," Lucifer said suddenly. At least he was making an attempt to break the rock-hard ice that Dean could just _feel_ solidifying the room.

Gabriel self-consciously twirled a cluster of bang strands in between his fingers. "Really? You think it might be because my body is trying to catch up to my age?"

"Sure, why not. You might even get taller," Lucifer pointed out with a slight smirk.

"There is nothing wrong with my height," Gabriel huffed defensively. (If there was one thing that was an irrefutable similarity between Gabriel Bennett and the archangel, it was their stance on a person's height… namely how Sam and Dean were giants and that his stature was only slightly below the average thirteen-year-old teen.)

Lucifer was grinning madly. "I know for a fact that you're related to Gabriel's other vessel. It stands to reason you won't get that much taller… Oh, _come on_ , Gabriel. Don't give me that look."

Dean watched the interaction, enjoying the outside perspective. There was just something about the way Lucifer said Gabriel's name that made it absolutely clear which Gabriel he was referring to. It was something that Dean couldn't pin down to anything as simple as pronunciation or inflection. It just _was_.

And it felt far more private than what Dean should be letting himself witness.

"Let's walk a tightrope? I hear it's a breathtaking view," Lucifer said to Gabriel, referencing something that left Dean clueless.

Even Gabriel seemed confused for a second. Then, suddenly, the reference must have dawned on him because he grinned, making his way to Lucifer's side as if Dean and Mary weren't even in the room. "You'd never know how far we could fall," he responded quietly.

"Would it matter as long as we promised to never let go?" Lucifer returned, matching the kid's grin even as it faded into a smile more reminiscent than amused.

"Hand in hand, of course," Gabriel murmured in answer. His brown eyes dropped down, only to look back up when Lucifer reached to take Gabriel's hand in his own. "I'd go anywhere with you."

Mary quietly moved over to Dean, putting a hand on his shoulder. _We should go_ , the look she gave him said. In just as quiet a response, he nodded: _They need some time alone together._

 **~o-O-o~**

Lucifer wasn't sure how to feel about being reunited with Gabriel. The boy was something far more precious to him than any of his brothers ever could have been, but he missed Gabriel at the same time. Perhaps he was selfish to want both. That didn't keep him from wanting to have them both by his side.

He could forget about it all with Gabriel. It didn't matter what happened yesterday or a month or even a year ago. Here, _now_ , was all that was important.

This was what made him happy. This was what made up his entire world. This was what he gave everything else up for.

(Because _this_ , this was _love_.

Not that abstract emotion that he and his brothers all naturally had for their Father. Not the once-thought unbreakable bond between them. Nor was it what he saw pass amongst Sam and Dean and Castiel and Mary on a day to day basis…

It was in the shy smiles, the knowing looks, the understanding and lingering but brief touches – the little things. It was also in the private talks they had in silence, the absolute wonder and adoration that lit the boy's eyes, the hope and joy and light he brought with his mere presence – the larger things. And it was in everything in between that filled in the spaces.)

( _Because this boy was his heart._ )

And as Lucifer unconsciously pulled Gabriel closer to him when the boy shifted a bit more into his side while they slept, a blue-eyed angel quietly shut the door to their room, having been made content with waiting until the couple awoke. He dared not disturb the one good thing to happen in the Bunker for the past several weeks. After all, who was he to destroy the sight of something he had only seen before in a Heaven lost long ago?

* * *

 **A/N: And now I have to go back to writing new chapters. I really do hope you guys are enjoying this story. I can't tell at the moment.**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]


	15. By an Open Door

**Chapter 14**

 **By an Open Door**

In the past year alone, Lucilia had been called too-old-for-her-age twice as much as her brother ever had. To be fair, Gabriel had always seemed to have an ancient soul – which had been more true than they'd ever realized. Lucilia learned to grow up when Gabriel left, and she had grown up fast.

It had been inevitable, really. Their father left, and Gabriel had been Lucilia's main support while their mother tried to keep what was left of their normalcy afloat. Then Gabriel disappeared without a trace, and Lucilia struggled to stay an innocent kid.

She was not as oblivious nor ignorant as Gabriel believed her to be. Sometimes it's easier for a child to accept certain facts about life. For example, that December – _in those two weeks that Gabriel acted so_ strange _right before he left_ – Lucilia knew nothing would be the same. Reading the note that Gabriel had left, she knew that she'd been right.

Thankfully, Gabriel did come back to her eventually. He came as a man she didn't recognize, but his soul was still the same. He was still her Gabriel, just with a side case of archangel. After he left again – _this time with the promise of_ returning _, of coming back to her_ –, she hadn't been sure how to process him back into her changing views.

In the end, Lucilia decided to start over, channeling anything that was left into her drawings. It was an outlet – she knew that, her mother knew it, her aunt and uncle knew it. Maybe that was part of the reason why Aunt Liz and Uncle Chris encouraged her artistic talent. (At the very least, that's what had them buying her art supplies.)

Lillian helped. Lucilia's almost-twin was a constant bundle of joy and energy, and Lucilia couldn't have asked for a better best friend. The other friends she'd made at her new school were nice to be around, but Lillian seemed to have this certain understanding that Lucilia had yet to find in the others.

Lillian didn't push when Lucilia just _stopped_ , not wanting to talk about anything. Her cousin would just sit there with a silence and stillness that was seemingly impossible for her otherwise. Lillian also respected Lucilia's book collection far more than anyone else did – even her mom.

Lucilia had Gabriel's books. Her mom had given her a sorrowful look of disapproval when she saw the collection as they packed up their belongings so they could move to live with the Dawsons. Aunt Liz and Uncle Chris said nothing. Her friends barely gave the choice of books a glance. But Lillian had asked Lucilia if they could read them together.

After finding Gabriel's second note, Lucilia hadn't actually _read_ the books until Lillian asked. Lucilia was now rather glad that she'd given in to Lillian's subtle (for her anyway) demands.

"I know what you are," she told the 'man', who had effectively singled Lucilia out to get them alone for this... whatever it was.

He – _Crowley_ – smirked approvingly at her. "I wouldn't expect anything less."

"Why would Gabe send someone like you?"

"I might be offended under other circumstances, and yet if I do anything but make sure nothing happens to you, that archangel brother of yours will have my hide."

Lucilia glanced back to the house. "I can't be the only one you're here for. Gabe isn't that self-invested."

Crowley smirked, only just holding back a laugh. "You're not wrong. Apparently the prophet is in town as well," he told her.

"Prophet..?" she inquired, a frown bringing her brows together. "You mean like—"

"Don't you worry about him, darling. He's a part of matters that you don't need to worry your precious head about."

Lucilia glared at the demon (for all it was worth coming from a nine-year-old).

 **~o-O-o~**

Sam was half tempted to barge in on Gabriel and Lucifer, knowing that if he did, not only would Mary and Dean get onto him for it but Castiel would also. But what Castiel had found was _important_. The angel knew it, too.

So Sam kept his mouth shut about it for now – because if Castiel thought it was worth it to bring it up to the kid then he would have (because he's Cas, and Cas still doesn't quite know how to subtly get to topics of extreme delicacy in a normal conversation). Plus, he did have to admit that interrupting Gabriel and Lucifer right now… yeah, not an option.

Sam hadn't actually watched the two interact all that much when it was still just Gabriel Bennett and his archangelic tag-along. Sam himself hadn't really interacted with the kid all that much in the first place. It had always been Dean or Mary or Castiel who was there with them. Sam had, perhaps unconsciously, avoided the two of them altogether.

But that was almost a year ago. Sam knew Gabriel (the archangel anyway), and he knew Lucifer. How different could the kid be? Very, actually – despite how often Lucifer insisted that Gabriel Bennett was not all that unlike Gabriel the archangel. (And that right there was why Sam got headaches just from thinking about the different personalities of Gabriel.)

First of all, the kid just looked so _normal_. There was nothing that gave away what he was. It wasn't all that hard to pick out once you knew – usually the eyes gave it away. But those brown eyes were just as natural as the next pair. Even knowing that Gabriel Bennett had the soul (grace) of an archangel, Sam would still label the kid as human if he was observing Gabriel from afar.

It was because _Gabriel was human_. He had been raised as one, grew up as one. He was just a kid, who had a father and a mother and a little sister. He'd gone to school, made friends, played with those friends. He had hobbies and interests and habits, favorite books and movies and games. He had a decent sense of humor and plenty of common sense, not to mention an intelligence that was naturally his. _All of it was his_.

And that's where the archangel started bleeding through. Sometimes Gabriel Bennett was too smart, knowing things he couldn't possibly know otherwise. His humor would sometimes take on a trickster-like edge. You could tell that the friends that he did have were few and far between because he was _different_ – and he'd been bullied for it. His family reflected that of the archangel's in its own convoluted way. And Gabriel Bennett was only one of the many times his 'soul' had been reborn into a new body.

Sometimes it was easy to forget that Gabriel wasn't human. It was that much harder to understand when one suddenly remembered.

Second, Sam had once been told that angels (and archangels) didn't quite _feel_ emotions the way humans did. Gabriel Bennett – despite his soul having been formed by a piece of an archangel's grace – could feel and hurt and love just like every other human out there. But instead of one personality dominating over the other like when the two were 'split' (where one could notably tell which personality was which), there was an overlap of sorts. The archangel could feel those emotions because Gabriel Bennett was feeling them.

It had confused Sam at first – in the early days when it was Gabriel the archangel, not Gabriel Bennett, who was gallivanting around the Bunker with Lucifer, doing this and that and just being himself. Sam's brain hadn't quite made the disconnect about what he knew of the archangel _before_ and the archangel _then_ (not including the archangel _now_ ). It was only when Gabriel had a bit of nervous lapse and stress-baked a month's worth of food (for reasons Sam now knew related to Gabriel Bennett's little sister) that it all started to come together.

And while, yes, there was an inexplicable connection between what the archangel felt and what the kid was feeling (no matter how buried beneath the archangel's personality as he was), Sam had noticed that angels could _feel_ too. But like he'd been told, angels felt in different ways. They could understand and replicate emotions that they saw in humans in fleeting amounts, but the true emotions that they _did_ feel ran much, much deeper than they would in a human.

"— _watch this_. Sam, I going to list every single important character who dies in that new Avengers movie that's coming out in a couple months!"

It took Sam about five seconds to register what Gabriel had raised his voice for was about. Of course, by that point, Gabriel had already started to ramble about how the first part of the film started a little after that last post-credits scene in _Thor: Ragnarok_ , which was hilarious and he couldn't wait to watch it again when he did a marathon of the MCU for _Avengers: Infinity War_ before it came out in late April. But Lucifer apparently hadn't seen _Thor: Ragnarok_ yet for some reason, so they might as well watch the movie sometime this week since _Black Panther_ was going to be in theaters Friday—

"Wait— how do you know who's going to die in Infinity War if Black Panther hasn't even come out yet?" Sam exclaimed from where he stood in the corridor, freezing in place as he realized he'd confirmed his presence in the hallway.

Not that Gabriel, who had told Lucifer, didn't already know he was there. The door to Gabriel's room opened, and the boy's smile reminded Sam more of his trickster persona than the archangel. "Well, after the latest trailer for Infinity War came out, Gabriel couldn't help himself and he kind of went forward in time to see it, so he knows what happens."

"Which means that he knows it, too," Lucifer added, stepping up behind the kid.

Sam let a slight frown cross his face. "I don't particularly mind spoilers, but I wouldn't mention anything around Dean," he warned. "He probably wouldn't hesitate to shove certain things in certain places for ruining a movie like that."

"I know, I was just trying to get your attention," Gabriel said with a shrug.

"To be fair, you were brooding and oblivious to the world," Lucifer inputted, tagging on to the kid's words again. This time he also pointed a finger at Sam.

Sam looked at the finger being pointed at him and felt his frown deepen. He then let out a sigh, releasing any of his frustrations as best he could. "Well? What did you want?"

"Huh?" Gabriel blinked at him. "I didn't want anything. You were just being kind of weird, standing silently and broody outside the door and everything."

"So you threatened spoilers upon me to... do what exactly?" Sam asked exasperatedly.

Gabriel shrugged again. "Dunno yet. I was thinking of asking about Ms. Eileen again, but it's a bit on the nose now. Though, I do still think that you should take her to—"

The kid's jaw dropped as Lucifer whispered something in his ear, a devious smirk spreading across the latter's face as a blush bloomed in bright red on the former. Gabriel promptly slapped his hands over his ears, and Lucifer let out a full body laugh. He was kicked in the shin for it.

"Innocent ears, you vulgar creature!" the boy cried, shaking his head as if that would help to get rid of the _suggestion_ , whatever it had been.

Rubbing a hand over the sore spot on his leg, Lucifer set his other hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "Oh, please. Gabriel's said far more lewd things than that. Dean has too at some point, and I'm sure Sam could come up with some nasty phrases as well."

If they were talking about what Sam thought they were talking about… then Lucifer probably wasn't wrong. Still, he'd rather not be thinking about that right now. This somehow lead to his mind veering off onto a sidetrack about how much Gabriel Bennett had influenced Gabriel the archangel's… prolific activities – or rather, lack thereof. Huh… that actually made some sense now that Sam thought about it.

"—really know though. Sam? Hello?"

Right. He was still supposed to be engaged in the conversation. "Um, could you repeat that?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes, smacking Lucifer in the abdomen when he let out a snort of amusement. "I was asking if you wanted me and Lucifer to cover for you while you took Miss Eileen out somewhere nice for Valentine's Day," he explained.

"You would do that?" Sam asked, not even bothering to mask his confusion.

Though, to be fair, it really shouldn't have surprised him. The kid _had_ brought the topic up in the Impala, even mentioning that the archangel already had getaway plans for Sam and Eileen. Of course, Sam had no idea what those plans had been and it wasn't like Gabriel could do anything special now, but that the kid was offering to help keep Dean off his back was kind of touching.

"That'd actually be pretty nice," Sam admitted. "What are you planning to say as an excuse?"

Gabriel waved a flippant hand. "I would go with a hunt, but it's not like that'd fly with the fourteenth coming up. _So_ … semi-truth: you went on a vacation."

"And if you happened to stay away for a bit longer after Valentine's in a nice and relaxing setting, then really it's not lying at all," Lucifer pointed out. "Besides, I hear the Caribbean is nice around this time of the year.

That was it. Sam couldn't help it. He had to ask. "What exactly did Gabriel plan for me and Eileen? You guys have clearly been thinking this out for a while."

"Come on, Sam. You can't figure it out? Cruises are nice, and the chances of a malcontent supernatural creature being on the same one as you two are slim to none. Plus, there are… safeguards that keep those kinds of crowds from even getting onto such cruises in the first place—"

"What Lucifer is trying to say is that it'll be perfectly fine," Gabriel interrupted, shoving a hand over Lucifer's mouth. "Gabriel has had this planned out for weeks, even took care of all the expenses and ID stuff. I can't exactly fly you to the port, but if you go and get Eileen now, you could definitely make it before the cruise ship leaves."

That was not what Sam had been expecting. Just… _wow_. "That's really nice of you guys," he finally managed to get out. All thoughts from earlier were firmly pushed out of his mind. "Thanks."

Gabriel gave him a brilliant smile. "You're welcome, Sam."

 **~o-O-o~**

"So Sam is where?"

"Sam is on vacation."

"And I didn't get to go?"

"No, Dean, you're going on a different one."

"I am?"

"Yup."

"Where?"

A phone was passed over. The location pulled up on the screen had Dean's eyebrows rising to meet his hairline.

"Pensacola, Florida?"

" _Beach_ , Dean. Pensacola Beach. It'll be a bit chilly 'cause it's still February, but it's still a beach in Florida. Lots of sun and sand and college girls on break."

"Say no more, kid."

 **~o-O-o~**

Lucifer turned the page of his current book as Castiel strode into the library. With Sam and Dean out of the Bunker, the angel had little to do. It wasn't that he couldn't leave, but at the same time, Castiel was inclined to stay – especially if it meant keeping help on hand in the Bunker with Gabriel and Lucifer the way they were.

"You're looking considerably better," the angel commented, clearing some books off of an empty table and putting them back on the shelves.

"You're not wrong," Lucifer replied.

And Castiel truly wasn't. Lucifer did look better. The dark circles under his eyes had faded, and he'd regained a bit of color since Gabriel was able to lure him out of the Bunker. He was eating more, too. Overall, he was far more healthy than he had been in a while.

Lucifer turned another page of his book – _The Mysterious Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde_. "Is something bothering you, Castiel?"

"I'd rather Sam and Dean be here before going over the specifics," the angel said after a moment.

"Then it can wait."

Castiel frowned. "It involves Gabriel— both of them."

Lucifer paused in the middle of turning to the next page. After a moment of his own, he set the book down and finally looked at Castiel for the first time since the angel walked into the room. " _Explain_."

 **~o-O-o~**

Something was stirring.

All of the greater powers could feel it.

It wasn't a good thing, nor was it a bad thing. It simply was.

And though it did not strike fear into the hearts of those who knew it was coming, it did not bring them joy either. Some were indifferent; most were wary; a few anticipated its arrival.

The universe called for it. Fate wove paths together for it.

It was not a person, nor being or creature that had a soul or lived. It was an event, an occurrence that had been foretold long ago.

It had been thwarted once – naught eight years past – because of death and imprisonment, but the revival of one meant the coming of the others. For in this universe, those who were dead didn't tend to stay that way, and those locked away were often set free.

Something was stirring.

It had taken eight years for the universe to correct itself. It was coming, and the universe rejoiced.

After all, never before had all four archangels walked upon the Earth. Not all at once anyways.

* * *

 **A/N: Definitely shorter than usual. Oh, well. I took out a part that's going into the next chapter instead of here.**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

* * *

 **teabrows:** Splendid deductions. We'll see if you've got it all down to a T. It'll be a while before this ends, lol.


	16. Fool Myself

**Chapter 15**

 **Fool Myself**

Lucifer watched Gabriel with a careful eye – all the while, not even close to giving away what he was doing. At the base of his reasoning for the constant surveillance, there was concern, worry. That was usually what motivated Lucifer when something decidedly not-good centered around Gabriel ( _both of them_ ). Otherwise, such surveillance was because of simple fondness.

Though at the moment, if Lucifer was being completely honest with himself, the surveillance he was currently conducting was a bit of both. It wasn't often that Gabriel Bennett played trumpet after all. The trumpet had been found in one of the storage rooms, and it had been well taken care of. And since neither Castiel nor Gabriel had sensed anything particularly special or magical about the musical instrument, Gabriel had brought it to the library and started playing.

Apparently, the trumpet was still in tune after being put away for decades on end. Gabriel buzzed a few notes and the breezed through several scales before playing several different theme songs – some of which Lucifer recognized from _Star Wars_ , Marvel's _Avengers_ , _Star Trek_ , a DCI marching band show from last year… and was that..? Yup, that was the trumpet solo from "Ashes of Time" by Audiomachine.

"You nerd," he teased as Gabriel set the trumpet down on his lap to search for another piece of music to play.

The brief comment made Gabriel pause. It took a moment, but the scrunched expression came out in full force as soon as the two words registered. "Nerd?" the boy repeated incredulously. "I thought we talked about this. It's nerd _and_ geek."

"Yeah, yeah, but I wasn't actually paying attention—" _Lie._ "—at that point because abstract human concepts bore me. Probably because I don't understand them half the time, but whatever. _You nerd._ "

Gabriel made a face – a rather adorable one that completely ruined the annoyed emotion it was meant to convey. "Was there a point in your grab at my attention?" he asked, scrolling through a few more musical pieces, still searching but not finding.

"Maybe…" Lucifer replied, drawing out the word to pique Gabriel's interest.

It worked of course. The boy looked up from his phone and cast a long glance in Lucifer's direction. A subtle curiosity shone in those rich brown eyes. Lucifer grinned at the subsequent frown.

" _Lucifer_."

"Gabriel."

Mildly frustrated, the boy huffed, knowing he wasn't getting anywhere. "Anything you'd like me to play?"

"Well, that wasn't what I wanted, but something fancy wouldn't be remiss—"

"Who called whom a nerd?" the boy muttered.

"—or you could do a bit from that game of yours. You know, the one where you don't really learn to be a wizard or whatever but go rescue the Spiral on a daily basis and run errands for NPCs who don't know how to do anything for themselves."

Gabriel sighed, but rather than picking a fight, he simply put the mouthpiece of this trumpet to his lips and started playing a few notes before actually piecing together a melody from the game. It was upbeat and lively, if not a bit 'magical'. Of course, given the premise and targeted younger audience of the game, it made sense that the musical themes would match. Then again, later parts of the game got a bit… darker, which (again) made sense since the higher level players were all older – mostly teenagers and some adults from what Lucifer could tell.

By the time the boy had set the trumpet down again, Lucifer had decided that he really was going to tell him. Up until then, the timing just hadn't been… _appropriate_ (it still wasn't). Just— when was it a good time to tell Gabriel that there were some glaring problems that were inevitably coming their way? Lucifer didn't want to spoil the peace they'd just gotten back.

Peace was such a relative term.

" _What's wrong?_ "

Lucifer almost startled at the soft question in the back of his mind. It was easy to forget, sometimes, that he was cut off from his grace, not the other way around. And it had surprised him the first time that the boy spoke to him over the bond, which he'd thought wouldn't work with how his grace was locked away. But Gabriel was always full of surprises – he should have at least suspected something like this.

After all, his grace was still there… just inaccessible to him. That didn't mean that there wasn't some things that his grace didn't naturally do, no matter how cut off from it he was. And so, while Lucifer could hear things and feel impressions from the boy over that bond between them, he couldn't respond back, not in the same way.

"Just another, uh, nightmare… from last night. Nothing major," Lucifer assured, still trying to come up with a way to bring _that_ up even as Gabriel went from playing a whimsical march to something closer to a ballad. Lucifer felt a faint impression of concern from the boy, and he meet Gabriel's eyes. "I'm fine— better. Getting there, anyway."

Lucifer wasn't quite sure which was worse: spending those first few weeks with his little brother or having to keep himself in check around the boy. He knew that there wasn't really a difference between what the two personalities remembered, but Lucifer couldn't help but try a little harder to be _normal_ around the boy. He didn't want to worry him so much.

The tempo slowed a bit more – definitely a ballad. The notes climbed up and down, arranged in musical patterns that swelled with feeling and quieted into soft whispers, all building up to the climax. Lucifer could almost hear a symphony playing underneath it all.

" _If only I could sing as well as I play,_ " the boy mused, climbing down into a decrescendo before finally stopping.

"We both know I was the choir boy," Lucifer huffed, fiddling with the phone he hadn't really been paying attention to for the past hour. "You stick to the brass."

Gabriel was already rolling his eyes by the end of the sentence. "You're jealous that I can play pretty much everything now."

"Just because at least _one_ of all your past lives learned how to play each instrument there ever was does not mean that _you_ , Gabriel Bennett, know how to play them all," Lucifer refuted.

"Giovanni protests otherwise."

"I don't care if that Italian's job was to teach others how to play things during the Renaissance or that he was beyond talented in the musical arts. _He_ didn't teach _you_."

Gabriel grumbled something inaudible in his past life's defense. Then: "When Sam gets back, I'm telling him that you don't sing as well as you used to."

"Don't you dare—" Lucifer started.

Gabriel grinned. "Or you'll do what?" he dared. "You don't have dirt on me."

"Oh, but I have all kinds of blackmail on a little brother of mine," Lucifer responded with a grin of his own. "Who do you think came up with the platypus and giraffe? Certainly not _Chuck_."

"And who exactly made penguins a thing?"

"Penguins are beautiful and majestic creatures!"

"I know they are, but He didn't know about them until you pissed Michael off enough to where he almost melted the ice caps for the first time," Gabriel pointed out, amber flecks shining against the brown.

"So?" Lucifer grumbled. "Dad liked them."

"He didn't like the way sharks have so many teeth!"

"They lose like nineteen teeth a week, so I figured they might as well have more!"

"That— that doesn't make any sense… By giving them more teeth, they have more teeth to lose."

"Then why did it make sense for you to give elephants trunks?"

"I don't know! They looked stupid with those stubby little noses and giant-ass ears— something had to match."

Lucifer shook his head, leaning back in his chair and looking upwards. "No wonder Dad avoided us while He was making everything. We were already messing around with His stuff."

"Who'da thunk it?" Gabriel teased, amber spreading a little more. "He still loved us though."

"Yeah…" Lucifer sighed.

He wasn't oblivious to the current blend of the boy and the archangel's personalities. The eye color was a dead giveaway. Whoever said that the eyes were the window to the soul wasn't wrong. This was, perhaps, the closest the archangel had been to consciousness – or at least, been this aware of what was going on.

 _It was now or never._

"Hey, Gabriel?"

The boy looked up from where he was putting the trumpet back into its case. _Last chance to turn back._ Lucifer went in for the metaphorical kill… albeit in a roundabout way.

"Do you ever want to, well, go back?"

The bemused look is far more archangel than human, especially with the slight head tilt. "Back? What— to Heaven?" Amber-brown eyes narrowed. "I left for a reason. You know that, Lucifer."

 _This… was not going to be easy._ (What the hell ever gave him that impression?) "Well, I mean— don't ever want to… I dunno, check up on them?" he tried (and definitely failed) to be casual with his question.

Gabriel actually paused to consider his answer. Then: "I've been reliably informed that Heaven is doing 'not bad' given everything that's happened over the last decade."

"And when did you hear this?"

"A little over a month ago," Gabriel answered slowly, suspicion plain on his face. "Why?"

Lucifer barely held back a deflective shrug. _Wording. Wording is key_ , he reminded himself. "Something… came up— right before we sent Sam and Dean on vacation. Castiel thought it could wait…"

Gabriel easily picked up where Lucifer trailed off. "But you think it's more time sensitive. What is it that has you on edge?" he asked, getting right to the point – hundreds of theories, ideas, conclusions being drawn, weighed and dismissed in mere seconds. All only noticeable through a faint feeling over the bond.

"It's not about Crowley. I made all sorts of contingency plans and more for that," Gabriel continued when Lucifer didn't answer. His eyes were looking more amber than brown now, a shade of gold just behind it all. "So obviously it has to do with Heaven; otherwise you wouldn't have brought it up. Now, _what is it?_ "

Lucifer sighed, working his jaw. Getting up, he moved over to where Castiel had hidden the decrypted translation. If Gabriel was getting this worked up about it, he may as well see it for himself. Lucifer certainly wasn't going to stop him.

Gabriel read over the notes three times before looking back up to Lucifer. "How much do you trust this?" he asked in a demanding tone, waving the papers in the air.

"You're welcome to get Castiel to show you the source materials," Lucifer drawled, crossing his arms defensively.

"Lucifer, how are you— This could mean—"

"I know what it means, Gabriel," Lucifer interrupted before his little brother could go off on a tirade. That or start hyperventilating. It was looking like the scales would tip either way at the moment. "And I would say that it started last summer."

"… _with me._ "

Gabriel stumbled back into his chair, his head dropping into his hands. Lucifer could feel the archangel shutting down, and he moved to place his own hands on Gabriel's shoulders, eliciting a shudder from the boy's body. Gabriel let out a shaky breath, and his hands gripped at his hair, tugging at the gripped strands in a way that would have been painful for a human.

"Deep breaths, little brother. Deep breaths. _Breathe_ ," Lucifer murmured, rubbing soothing circles into Gabriel's shoulders with his thumbs.

To be fair, Gabriel was handling this about as well as Lucifer had when Castiel told him.

On the other hand, it had far worse connotations for Lucifer than it did for Gabriel… Well, it was still pretty bad for both of them. Just more for Lucifer. Then again, it couldn't get much worse for Lucifer at this point. And that was saying something.

Hmm, not the time to be thinking about those sorts of thoughts. Right. Back to matters at hand.

"I— I don't want to go," Gabriel choked out, almost a sob. "I don't want to leave— not because of _this_."

And it chipped away at Lucifer's heart, hearing that broken voice. He'd heard it from his little brother far too often over the past few months to ever want to hear it from the boy. Because this was the boy now. Gone was the amber and gold from those eyes, leaving only brown – pure, rich, chocolate brown.

Lucifer drew the boy closer, wrapping his arms around him and rubbing those same circles into the hairline at the back of the boy's neck and more just below the point between his shoulder blades. It ached, clawed at his conscience – having to give this comfort to the boy. He shouldn't need to— shouldn't have to give the boy something he shouldn't need. Gabriel should be happy – both of them.

But, Lucifer mused as Gabriel softly cried into his shoulder, happiness was easy to find if one knew what one was looking for. It was keeping that happiness which was the hard part.

 **~o-O-o~**

Ketch was giving him weird looks again. Mick was starting to get fed up with them. There wasn't even anything particularly wrong with the looks if the concerned stares hadn't been coming from a sociopath – a sociopath (borderline psychopath), who for all intents and purposes had taken an interest in Mick.

Mick was still debating whether or not that was a good thing.

On one hand, it was nice to have Ketch of all people being a decent human being around him despite no one else being in the vicinity. On the other hand, it was kind of creepy since whenever they got a call from the home office, Ketch was somewhat… defensive (more protective than possessive) over Mick if even a hint of a threat was directed at him. Again, it was nice, but Mick found it slightly (understatement) disturbing, and he was sure that the Old Men had taken note of the odd behavior.

Mick says odd, but then Ketch wasn't ever really normal. Could a sociopath in their line of work be normal? And really, the only reason Mick knew that Ketch wasn't a psychopath (despite Bevell's arguments otherwise) was because Ketch did express a conscience (his moral code), not to mention genuine emotions. It just wasn't very often or very much when he did.

It wasn't something Mick wanted right now either. Not after having less than three hours of sleep in over four days. Still, it'd be rude to simply avoid Ketch, so Mick would just have to ignore the stares.

He consulted the papers one last time before speaking up. "The Old Men want to know why there's been a sudden decrease in demonic activity here in the States. They know it wasn't us, so they suspect the Winchesters."

"And I'm to interrogate any demon I happen to come across for conformation?" Ketch asked, completely at ease as he cleaned his personal arsenal of pistols on the main conference table in front of Mick.

"You don't have a problem with your assignment, do you, Mr. Ketch?"

Ketch paused to glance at Mick before continuing what he was doing. "None at all. It may take a bit longer than usual though," he responded somewhat dismissively.

"Oh?" Mick inquired wordlessly.

"Knowing you, you'd rather not know."

"Of course." Because that was essentially code for _Ketch isn't going to stop 'interrogating' demons until he's satisfied his… urges._

Mick's co-worker wouldn't be leaving until tomorrow morning, and Mick didn't particularly care to know where Ketch was going for his first interrogatee. He especially didn't want to know what Ketch was going to do to the demons he questioned (such a neutral term for torture).

Ketch, of course, knew this – as he had told Mick. And, really, Mick would love to know just how Ketch understood Mick more than Mick understood himself.

 **~o-O-o~**

Kemuel was back in Heaven for the first time in several months. All of the angels who wanted to come home were here, and those who had wished to stay on Earth had been told to stay in touch. The ones who had posed a threat to either Heaven or Earth were simply eliminated. Nothing could have been done for them. Kemuel didn't exactly feel a deep sorrow for the loss, but the dwindling number of angels did concern her. It had concerned Joshua a significant deal more.

And while the small number of twenty odd angels in Heaven had once scared Kemuel, it didn't anymore. Not while _she_ was here. Oh, she herself was rather troubling, but the fact that she was intent to stay in Heaven was quite literally a godsend.

Heaven simply couldn't run on only twenty angels. However, having an archangel to help power everything up here… well, it was unburdening to say the least.

Joshua had been reasonably wary of Raphael's resurrection. Kemuel hadn't even found out until a month after the archangel's sudden reappearance, when Kemuel had returned to the playground for a scheduled check-in. Instead of being greeted by Joshua, Dumah had hurriedly informed Kemuel of Raphael's presence before telling her Joshua's request to quickly finish her business on Earth. That had been almost two weeks ago.

Now, Kemuel walked through Heaven's white and gray corridors to where Joshua usually hosted meetings, her thoughts tumult and chaotic in her concerned agitation. She had been ready for a fight when she had stepped through the portal into Heaven, but already she could see the subtle differences that having an archangel in Heaven had made.

It was… brighter. The walls themselves seemed to glow with new life. It was almost as if Heaven had been in the midst of a drought and Raphael was a rainstorm, giving the land fresh water, giving them a chance for growth once more.

Except, the number of angels was still only twenty (just over thirty, if one counted the angels who chose Earth over Heaven), and that number could only go down, not up.

"My, my… If it isn't Gabriel's favorite pet angel," Raphael's voice drawled from the meeting room.

Kemuel hadn't even stepped inside, still several feet away from even reaching the door. A faint murmuring met her ears – Joshua? Surely he hadn't just rolled over and given Heaven to the archangel in a sudden desperation to save it. (But Kemuel knew he _would_ do that. Heaven was too important to hold on to something like pride.)

"There's no need to insult one of your only links to Earth, _sir_ ," Kemuel bit out pointedly as she passed through the doorway and came to stand in front of the archangel.

Raphael was seated in what Kemuel supposed was a makeshift throne – not that it was particularly noteworthy. Joshua stood a little ways off to the archangel's left, and Dumah escorted two of the others out before the spat (which was obviously bound to occur) would start.

At Kemuel's comment, Raphael merely grinned, her white teeth shining against the room's bright glow. "Then there should be no need for that sort of attitude."

"I was only returning the courtesy."

Kemuel tried not to let it show – how Raphael's unhidden amusement unnerved her. "Is that how you treat my brothers?" the archangel asked.

"Since I never really met the others and I happen to like Gabriel, _no_ ," Kemuel retorted. "How are you alive, Raphael?" she demanded.

Because she could do that: demand an explanation. It was her right – she wasn't some mindless drone for an archangel to swoop in and order around like the hierarchy had never crumbled. The archangels didn't hold that kind of power here anymore. And she'd be damned if she was going to just let Raphael take over.

"That's the big question, isn't it?" the archangel mused. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I'll tell you. And then you can go report back to Gabriel and Lucifer like the good little pet you are."

* * *

 **A/N: So, yeah, Raphael's a bit of a snob (but maybe not all is as it seems?). And, yes, I'm having her portrayed as a she. No particular reason besides Raphael's last vessel being a woman. And aren't I a cruel person for putting so much fluff and angst all in one chapter? Anyways, we're steadily making our way up to that next peak of a plot arc~ I hope you guys are ready!**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

* * *

 **teabrows:** Yes, I do like my drama. Is this enough for your next high?


	17. Be with Me

**Chapter 16**

 **Be with Me**

He'd never been here before. He knew about it, remembered it from a past ( _human_ ) life. It was a memory, and he hid himself away in it.

White snow fell from a gray and heavy sky. It settled over the cold and hard ground like a useless blanket. The evergreen trees – not green, just brown and black and _dark_ – were silent with not a breeze to whisper through their branches. Nor were their small animals to chitter and tweet and bring life to the place. It was a dead and desolate warfront.

He ignored the loud explosion that broke the silence. He ignored the shouting and cries of men, soldiers who had volunteered to come out here – so, so far away from home. He ignored the way the ground shook every time another mortar shell hit its mark. He ignored the dud that rolled past his feet, ignored the scared look on some man's face. He ignored the resolve that came over the man's face as he watched another of his friends – _brothers-in-arms_ – die.

He ignored how the world shifted into a different era – different memory – when the other one eventually ended. It was all the same old story, just different setting, different people.

"You shouldn't lock yourself away like this," came an annoyingly unignorable voice. He didn't need to look up to know that Bennett wasn't actually in front of him or wherever direction his voice was coming from. Bennett wasn't in this memory, or any of the ones like this. Then again, he wasn't supposed to be in them either. "It's not good for the psyche."

He let out a soft scoff and rolled his eyes but didn't resist letting the boy purposefully change his surroundings.

Bennett was there this time. He stood out like a sore thumb in the waves of never-ending golden grass. Mountaintops could be seen a great ways away in the far, far distance. The dark blue speckled with white of night stretched over their heads, a light in the east signaling the coming of dawn.

He looked down and saw that he himself was made up of light in this memory – for once, something that was _theirs_ , something they both shared.

"Interesting choice," he murmured. And he had to stop for a moment because, well, it had been literal ages since he'd heard himself in this voice, his voice unfiltered by a vessel.

The boy smiled at him. "It's relatively neutral common ground for us."

"Here to negotiate the terms of my control?" he asked, half-teasing half-serious.

Bennett shrugged, feeling the emotions clearly, nothing lost in metaphorical translation. They were technically the same person, he had to remind himself. Bennett had an in-linking to what he felt and vice versa. He still doubted how much of that went both ways since he hardly could ever distinguish the boy's feelings from his own, though Bennett obviously knew which was which.

"He doesn't need you to take care of him. You can be yourself. You're what matters to him."

"I know."

The boy looked away, eyes scanning the horizon. "Is that why you haven't told him yet?"

"What? That I didn't kill Crowley and Rowena? It's not like he doesn't already know, or at least suspect that, especially with that slip up the other day."

"No." Bennett turned his gaze back to stare at him. "Why haven't you told any of them that you made a deal with Crowley?"

He actually laughed at that. "You make it sound like it was a bad thing."

"It is if you keep it a secret," Bennett warned him.

He sobered a little, but that didn't stop him from responding. "There's no need to tell them what doesn't affect them," he said.

"It'll come back to bite you in the ass if you don't tell them," the boy said with a surprising use of profanity, as slight as it was.

"Doesn't it always?"

" _Gabriel_."

A crack of thunder. The sound of rain. But it wasn't raining. Gabriel blinked, looking up. The sky was still clear, and dawn still hours away. So why did it sound like they should have been in the middle of a thunderstorm? Rain, he could understand – rain was contentedness and quiet days at home. Thunder was… thunder meant disconnect.

Wind rushed by. A stiff breeze that pushed against the fields of gold, sending the stalks waving back and forth, creating a collage of dizzying motion. It was natural beauty. He never could have forgotten this imagery, and yet he'd tried for millennia after he left here.

Bennett sighed, and in the blink of an eye, he stood beside him, taking his hand. Small, boyish fingers wrapped around his own. Gabriel looked down, staring at their hands.

"It was supposed to be a seamless merge, nothing to tell the difference between us," the boy mused. "In a way, it worked, but there's still the two of us. We're just connected together, not… blending."

"That's 'cause it's _your_ body. You're the one who was still alive when I wasn't. Even if I'm the dominant personality… I'm just an echo," Gabriel said, feeling the boy's comforting squeeze and returning the hand gesture.

"Gabriel," the boy started after a long but mutual silence, "if Michael and Raphael really are coming back, or if they already are—"

He cut Bennett off before the boy could worry too much (not that Bennett hadn't been worrying from the moment they found out Michael and Raphael). "We'll deal with them when they get here. There's no point to making preemptive countermeasures. They can't force another Apocalypse, not only because Lucifer wouldn't want any part in it but also because of how he is now. If Mikey and Raph still want to go at it, they can have it between themselves somewhere not on Earth. Luci and I aren't playing ball with them."

"And if…"

Gabriel frowned when Bennett didn't finish his thought, but he could guess what it was about. He sighed. It was a rather optimistic thought, not necessarily naïve but still innocent in origin. It was a thought he wished would come true. (That was the naïve part.)

 **~o-O-o~**

To be completely honest, Dean wasn't all that surprised when he came home to the Bunker only to be more or less ambushed by an up-jumped archangel (okay, maybe he had been _a little_ surprised when he'd been suddenly assaulted by a bunch of confetti). Even with the complete shocker of seeing Gabriel (like, full on adult trickster), Dean was too pleased by his sweet, sweet vacation on a beach in Florida to be all that perturbed by any of the change's implications.

That didn't keep Dean from noticing the way Gabriel seemed to have a perpetual frown drawn on his forehead, and then there was how Lucifer kept tensing up whenever Gabriel was in the room. Gabriel's frown was clearly because of the way Lucifer was unconsciously skittish around him. On the other hand, Lucifer was obviously _better_ about being in the same room as this adult form of Gabriel's: the brothers were interacting just fine… but Lucifer wasn't being very subtle about how not-quite-ready he was about the change.

It was when Sam got back with a somewhat goofy grin on his face that Dean cornered Cas about why Gabriel wasn't a kid anymore.

The angel looked off to the side with a tired sigh. "If you really want to know, ask Gabriel."

Dean asked his mom an hour later just to be sure. Her answer wasn't all that different, though Castiel seemed to know more about what was going on than she did. So, Dean went to go find their resident archangel/trickster, got him alone and asked him. Gabriel actually clammed up and avoided the question for several minutes before Dean got fed up and demanded an answer.

"Look! It's complicated, okay?" Gabriel exclaimed. "Something came up, and it was enough for Lucifer and I to get our shit together for a while."

Dean repeated part of that answer in his head. _Something came up._ Yeah, that didn't sound good at all. "And the kid's okay with all of this? You're okay with this?"

It was a legitimately important question: if the two didn't agree on whatever the issue was, different kinds of bad stuff would happen (if he understood the concept correctly, which he did since both Cas and Sam had pulled him aside to explain it in depth).

"Yes, Deano, we're all okay with all of this," Gabriel said in a slow drawl, bemused but understanding.

"So you got your stuff sorted out?" Because that was why that fairy queen chic turned Gabriel back into Gabriel Bennett for a while, wasn't it? Gabriel the archangel had issues, so he got put in the passenger seat until he got his act together. "I was gone for a week, and all kinds of shit happened."

"That's not completely inaccurate," Gabriel muttered under his breath.

Dean narrowed his eyes at the archangel but otherwise pretended not to hear the comment.

 **~o-O-o~**

Sam, of course, already knew about most of what was going on before he'd left for his own vacation with Eileen. Well, if he didn't know, he'd _suspected_ , at the very least. But he tried not to think too much about that while they were on the cruise and then staying at a small private beach somewhere along the Gulf coast. (How Gabriel managed to organize all of that was a question Sam wasn't going to ask.)

What had shocked Sam the most during his romantic vacation was the fact that the captain of the cruise ship had not been human. In fact, he had been a selkie – though why he was the captain of a cruise ship that toured the Caribbean, Sam was a little lost on that. He would have thought that selkies stayed closer to the North Atlantic or even Arctic Ocean waters.

Sam subtly confronted the selkie about it. The creature had panicked when he realized he was talking to a hunter but then calmed down as Sam explained that he just wanted to know… well, why he was this far south. The selkie had explained that this was a cruise for supernatural beings – the entire crew were creatures of some sort and most of the passengers were either also creatures or their human family members.

This did not – _at all_ _(note, sarcasm)_ – blow Sam's mind. Though, to be fair, Sam should have expected there to be a civilized society of supernatural creatures. He reasoned that not all of the monsters he and Dean had hunted were actual monsters and that some could be convinced to live conventional human lives, to blend in. _Of course_ there would be vacation spots like this where they could act a bit more like themselves and indulge in natural instincts.

(And Gabriel _would_ send them on a cruise like this. Sam supposed the archangel made up for it with the private beach that had been rented out to them for a week after the cruise.)

Eileen hadn't been oblivious to the not-human aspects of the cruise, but after Sam had given her the captain's assurances and then some of his own as well as an apology text from Gabriel Bennett (apparently he'd thought Sam and Eileen wouldn't have minded, and Lucifer _had_ said that malcontent supernatural creatures would be unlikely, not relatively peaceful ones), she had rolled her eyes and told Sam to relax – "We're on vacation just as much as they are," she'd said. So Sam did. Because that was what you were supposed to do on a vacation: _relax_.

Sam slept much better when they were on dry land.

Eventually, he did have to part ways with Eileen and return to the Bunker, coming home with a glorious tan to rival the one Dean had acquired. Gabriel's change back into his usual archangelic self had been a bit of a surprise to Sam – mainly because he'd thought Gabriel Bennett would stay a little longer, but then again, if Gabriel knew about the other archangels… well, Sam would have been more worried about Gabriel not going back to his adult-ish self. ('-ish' because Gabriel was a child and Sam had the means to prove it.)

"Gabriel?"

The archangel let out a groan, shoulders slumping as he looked upwards in what could only have been exasperation. "You're not going to ask if I'm okay, too, are you?"

"Uh," Sam paused. He decided to go with a half-truth. "No."

Gabriel turned slightly and sent a glare at Sam over his shoulder. "I'd say try again, but you might as well just go on to whatever your other reason for hunting me down is all about," he said with a flippant hand gesture."

Sam, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, took the offered conversation save. "I was going to thank you for the extended vacation and then ask you if Dean and Mom know about that one _issue_." Sam knew that he'd gotten his point across when Gabriel tensed at the last word.

"Lucifer told me about it, but I'm not sure if Mary knows, and Dean definitely suspects something," Gabriel answered after a moment's pause.

"Something on your mind?" Sam prompted, knowing there was something else bothering Gabriel.

Gabriel's lips pursed together. "Just thinking that we all need to have a sit down to catch everyone up and make sure we're all on the same page… And there's something I need to tell you guys."

Okay, that sounded a bit ominous, but Sam forced himself not to worry to much about it until Gabriel came out with it.

 **~o-O-o~**

Ketch wouldn't be back for at least another week, and there wasn't any more to be done in the field base, not for a while anyway. At least, that was what Mick kept telling himself when he finally finished the paperwork for the day and realized it was barely half past two in the afternoon. It was these thoughts that helped convince him to go to the café on the other side of the town.

It wasn't at all because he _needed_ a break.

Mick wasn't quite sure how long he spent sitting at a table in a fenced off outer section of the café. For late March, it was a reasonably warm day with the sun peaking out from behind some scattered clouds in addition to the coat Mick had made sure he put on before leaving the base, and the hot tea he ordered kept away the chill in his fingers.

(Though really, he had never been one to get cold easily. He could feel cold – just like anyone else – but it was rare to find him shivering even when it was freezing outside. When someone had asked at one point, Mick had pointedly not answered that it was because there was what felt like a fire burning in his chest, eternally warming him.)

The town – for all of the warehouses that were littered about the surrounding area – was small. And while it wasn't a place where everyone knew everyone, Mick really shouldn't have felt surprised when the barista had picked him out for being "new" before he'd even said a word, but she had also been nice about it, even pointing him to the table he was at now.

As soon as he'd sat down with his drink, he'd realized the table's… strategical position. He was essentially in a corner with his back to a wall and a bush at his right, but he could still see both the street and the inside of the café as well as all of the other customers: a young adult couple, a man on his laptop, a woman reading a novel, and another older couple in the opposite corner outside with him.

It still took Mick almost half an hour to relax into the padded outdoor chair. And by the end of an hour, his tea had long gone cold, but he was too lost in thought to care, which was why he startled so easily when he received a text from Ketch.

 _Possible answers acquired. However, several more questions were brought up. Will report again when I have answers for those as well as conformation on the original ones._

Mick grimaced slightly at the text's implication but managed to hold back a frown, keeping his relatively calm demeanor at the forefront of his 'normal customer' act. Well, that meant Ketch would probably be out for yet another week. This was the third time Ketch had extended how long he would be 'out'. While Mick didn't particularly mind the other man being away for weeks on end, it also left Mick very, very alone in the base.

It wasn't even that he wanted the company ( _yes, yes he did; he was never meant to be a solitary being_ ). It was just too quiet despite the constant hum of the tech around him ( _it would never compare to the silence when he had been in the_ —). And not to mention that for some reason the bloody headaches had gotten even _worse_ (though at this point Mick was dead set on simply ignoring the dull throbbing in his head).

In essence, Mick was getting restless. He needed something to do, something that wasn't paperwork and sucking up to the Old Men and specifically Hess, who still refused to say anything about whether or not reinforcements would be provided. Though, Mick was beginning to think that the Old Men had sent Ketch and him to America just be rid of them, and if the two somehow managed to achieve what they'd been told to do, well, then that was a bonus to be celebrated before Ketch and Mick were sent off on another suicide mission.

As Mick left the café, a new and steaming cup of tea in a styrofoam cup in hand, he didn't notice the way the older couple watched his departure with knowing eyes. Nor would he have heard the short words that passed unspoken between the unassuming man and woman.

" _Are you sure? So soon?_ "

" _They need each other._ "

* * *

 **A/N: You know, I was writing that first scene with the Gabriels, and I realized that because it's inside Gabriel's head and mostly about his memories, it's kinda like a mind palace (yes, I'll admit to watching** _ **Sherlock**_ **recently). I don't know. Ignore me :P**

 **Also, Mick wasn't supposed to be having this many scenes, but he's been demanding more screen time. I mean, he's fun to write in this context, so I hope you guys don't mind.**

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

* * *

 **The Gryfter:** Thanks!

 **teabrows:** No Raphael in this chapter, but we will be getting back to him/her in a bit. Hopefully I won't be gone for a whole month. Then again, I'll be out for like two and a half weeks, but I should have finished the next chapter on the plane or something by then. ;-)


	18. Still Inspire Me

**Chapter 17**

 **Still Inspire Me**

Gabriel shifted in place on the bed, fiddling with the calligraphy pen for another minute before Lucilia slapped him on the wrist and gave him a glare that said "put it back where you found it," which he did. He went into a sort of chagrined idle state for about five minutes until Lucilia's mother stopped in the door way, looking hurried and like she needed to leave an hour ago.

"I'm so sorry to just drag you in like this, Richard, but you and Lucy get along so well, and everyone else is out of town—"

Standing, Gabriel interrupted her off with his most charismatic smile. "No worries. I did say you could give me a call if you needed anything, and watching a great kid like Lucy here is a walk in the park."

"Convincing her to go to the park is another matter," the single mother muttered, half joking.

" _Mom_ ," Lucilia whined.

The older woman sighed, walking over and kissing the girl on the forehead, which Lucilia smiled at in return. "I'll see you later tonight— don't get into any trouble."

"That's Lillian's job," the girl mumbled, doodling an abstract swirl in the corner of her paper.

Her mother held back another sigh but didn't refute the comment. Turning to 'Richard', she addressed him. "Thanks, again. I know it's last minute, but you were the only person I trust who was in the area," she said.

"Like I said before, it's no problem," Gabriel tried to assure her.

She smiled at him and then left them alone in the house. Lucilia waited until she heard her mom's car drive away before letting out a snort of laughter. "You're so awkward around Mom. Is it as weird as I think it is?"

"Worse," Gabriel replied, sitting back down on the bed. "Especially when she gets the impression that I'm some adult version of her son, which is true in a way, but I have to make sure she doesn't like me like _that_."

Lucilia made a face, her nose scrunching up. "Gross."

"Yup."

Silence filled the house as Lucilia let the conversation drop, more concerned with the sketch she was working on. It was a commission from Mr. Redfield. She hadn't seen him for a few weeks, but then he came up to her in the park and asked if she could draw this for him. She agreed of course (she thought it helped him with the recluse thing he had going on).

The description he had given her was more vague than usual though, so she was having a bit of a hard time getting the image to come out the way she wanted. Then Gabriel had showed up and pulled a Google Maps street view picture of a café, and Lucilia realized it had to be the exact one Mr. Redfield had been talking about. Now all she had to do was put in the people.

Gabriel let out a bored huff, and Lucilia started a new conversation for him.

"I don't need a glorified babysitter, you know," she muttered. It wasn't Gabriel she was calling the babysitter though. "Aunt Liz and Uncle Chris are helping to take care of me just fine, and Mom's getting better."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "I don't think Crowley would appreciate being called a babysitter. He's not for that anyway. He's supposed to make sure the things that go bump in the night stay away."

"I guess he's doing a good job then," Lucilia commented after a moment, brushing a few eraser scraps off the paper.

"If he wasn't doing a good job, then he and I would have a problem."

Lucilia finished drawing a curved line before responding. "He mentioned that you had something to hold over his head."

"That's putting it mildly," Gabriel scoffed, rolling over to lay on his stomach and resting his head on his arms. "Very, _very_ mildly."

Lucilia actually tore her gaze away from her work to give him a look.

"What?" Gabriel mock pouted.

"His exact words were that you'd have his hide."

Gabriel pursed his lips in an exaggerated expression of thought. "Still not entirely accurate, but closer to the mark. He'll get there," he replied with a wink.

"I take it you're not going to tell me because it's an _adult thing_ ," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Look at you! Smartest nine-year-old I know," Gabriel exclaimed proudly.

Going back to her drawing, Lucilia huffed. "You're lucky I'm nine and know to keep my nose in my own business."

"But that takes the fun out of things," Gabriel pointed out in a half whine.

"It also keeps me out of trouble."

Okay, so she had a point. Time to shift the subject slightly. "They took the news really well actually."

"Oh? They didn't chew you out for keeping important secrets?" Lucilia asked sweetly.

Gabriel frowned. "Y'know, I could've sworn you didn't have this much sass the last time I saw you," he commented.

"Well, I do have great influences," she murmured in reply.

Gabriel let out a soft grunt in reply and left that at that. Slow minutes ticked by with the archangel watching the girl finish her sketch. When she finally set down her pencil and just stared at the finished product for a solid thirty seconds, Gabriel hopped up off the bed and exclaimed, "Okay, that's it. We're going somewhere!"

Lucilia barely had any time to turn and look at him when he snapped his fingers. One moment she was sitting in her room in Washington, and the next she was standing… where was this?

"Come on, Lucy. I know it's been like forever for you, but even you have to remember Pier 39," Gabriel teasingly admonished her, grabbing her hand in a light hold, which was actually rather reassuring given the crowds of people he was navigating them through.

Lucilia did remember the pier, but it was mostly vague memories of sweets and seafood and sourdough bread. She knew _now_ that Pier 39 was a tourist attraction in San Francisco, but that was basically it. All of the shops and restaurant stands she was seeing were all new to her.

"Now, Ghiradelli Square is way over that way," Gabriel was saying, waving his free hand in the direction of the chocolate shop that wasn't a part of Pier 39. "But, personally, I think we should just start here, where there's like a little bit of everything. Well, not Chinatown or anything like that, but it's called the Fisherman's Wharf for a reason…"

Gabriel was rambling. Lucilia wasn't sure if he knew he was doing that, but she didn't stop him. It was one of the most _Gabriel_ -things she'd seen the archangel do. At the very least, she was pretty sure that the archangel didn't normally ramble, talking about whatever came to mind, but it was definitely something her brother had done.

"—bit of hand-wavey time travel, and no one will even know you were gone. Except us, of course. You might have to make something up about how you got whatever you want to get from here as, like, a souvenir, but if you really have to, you can just say I gave it to you, I guess. Maybe I'll even get you—"

Gabriel stopped – as in full on stop, right in the middle of the crowd, not to mention he'd cut himself off mid-sentence.

Lucilia looked over in the direction he was staring, but she didn't see anything but a line of people waiting around some shop called Pearl Factory, where they seemed to ring this bell every time someone opened up an oyster for a pearl. For a second, she thought he was thinking about getting her a pearl, but then she noticed he wasn't looking at the shop itself.

"Gabriel?" She gave his hand a squeeze. He startled, but it got his attention. "Is something wrong?"

He hesitated. "No… not wrong," he said just loud enough for her to hear him over the people milling around them. "Just someone I didn't expect to see here."

"Here? Like in San Francisco?" she asked, frowning in a mostly confused expression.

A frown of his own began to form on his face. "No, like in the Americas. He usually hangs around Europe," he told her, hand tightening around her own as if he was getting ready to run.

"He? Who do you mean?"

Gabriel looked down at her before flicking his gaze back over to whomever 'he' was. "Don't worry about Reynard. If he causes trouble, I'll take care of it then. We can leave him alone for now."

Lucilia let herself be lead in the opposite direction of 'Reynard'. She tried to peer back over her shoulder to get a better look, but Gabriel kept her facing away from the other. If she had gotten the chance to look, she would have seen the alert vulpine eyes that stared cautiously after them.

 **~o-O-o~**

The two teenagers – a boy in his freshman year of high school and a girl in her senior year (attending that same high school) – stared at the glowing light that fell into the forest, landing somewhere in the distance. After a moment, the girl got up from her seat on the porch and ran towards the odd light. The boy stared in shock before racing after her.

"What the hell is it?"

The girl rolled her eyes, not that the boy would have seen. "You think I know? Shit, it just fell out of the sky."

"Kinda like that worldwide massive meteor show a couple years ago?" he asked.

"In this case it was a singular meteor, if that's what you think actually happened," she muttered.

"Huh?" He frowned in confusion, catching up to her when she slowed down as they got deeper into the forest. "What were they if they weren't meteors?"

"You don't want to know."

"Oh… Then what's this?"

" _Dude_. I said I didn't know."

"But you know what the other things were. You're into all that weird stuff."

"Ugh. Why do I put up with you?"

"Because I'm the only person in town that doesn't think you're complete off your rocker, and I _am_ the sheriff's son," he answered easily. "Plus, you know I have a crush on you, and you take advantage of that to get what you want without my dad finding out."

She paused to consider what he'd just said. "Okay, you have a point. Whatever. It isn't related to the meteor shower though."

"Any guesses then?" he asked when they stopped, the glowing whatever-it-was only a few hundred feet away now.

"Finally, something smart came out of your mouth," the girl muttered (which wasn't really true at all since she knew the boy was a lot smarter than he let on). She stared at the light, frowning. It wasn't exactly like looking at the sun, but it still bright enough to make her squint at in dark of night. "Okay, I don't know what it is, but I know someone who might."

The boy watched patiently as the girl pulled out her phone and typed in a number, both waiting anxiously as the ringer sounded. Someone picked up after the third tone.

" _Hello?_ "

"Max told me to call this number if something weird ever happened," the girl said in a rush before the man on the other end of the line could hang up. "And something like a falling star landed in the forest here. It's still glowing, and it's definitely not a natural light."

The man didn't reply for a solid minute, but then— "Where are you?"

 **~o-O-o~**

"Dean!" Sam called out to his brother, touch-screen laptop in hand.

Dean rolled his eyes when he saw that Sam wasn't even looking up from the thing. "What?"

"New case," his brother answered simply.

Okay, Dean had to credit Sam for catching his attention. The real question was if could he hold it. "Are you sure we should be going out right now?" he asked, testing the waters.

Sam let out a huff, finally looking up and turning the laptop around to show him something. "So get this: a falling star landed in the forest just outside of a town the other night..."

Dean just stared at him when he trailed off, pointedly not giving the laptop a look.

"Except, it's not a fallen star," Sam said after Dean let the silence continue for another awkward (for Sam) minute.

But Dean just raised an eyebrow at that, expressing an "and? get on with it" in full force without having to say a word.

Sam actually scowled at him. "Dean, what does that look like to you?" he asked, prompting him to look at the laptop.

Dean gave in and looked at the picture pulled up on the screen. "Isn't that..?"

"Grace."

They had to wait until the next morning for Gabriel to finally get back to the Bunker. Dean had been the one to tell Mary that a case had cropped up and that she should expect Sam, Gabriel and himself to be gone for a few days to go deal with it. Not one to just manage the home while waiting idlily for the men of the house to return, Mary asked why it was specifically Sam, Gabriel and Dean going.

"Mom," Dean started, pausing when he wasn't quite sure what to say. "Look, it's not the usual hunting case, and if something goes wrong, it might be better if you're here to keep Lucifer from freaking out while Cas comes to save our asses."

That put a frown on her face. "Why do I get the feeling that this has something to do with Gabriel's other older brothers?"

"W-well…" There really wasn't any lying to his mother. "There's just these little telltale things that are popping up in the area that add up to an angel's grace— it might not even pan out, and we'll be back before you know it."

Mary raised an eyebrow while giving a slow (almost sarcastic) nod. "Right," was all she said.

And that was that. At least on Mary's end. Cas, on the other hand, argued with Dean the entire time the hunter had been packing. Most of the argument had centered around why Castiel was staying in the Bunker, waiting to get called in as back up instead of just going with them in the first place.

" _Because_ , Cas," Dean said, waving his pistol emphatically before setting it down on top of his clothes. "If it is a trap, then I don't want you anywhere near us in case you get caught in it too."

"That is not an adequate—"

Dean turned to fully face the angel. "Yes, Cas, it is. I'm not letting you get hurt over something Gabriel and Lucifer are already owning up to. Sam and I are going to make sure Gabriel doesn't get in trouble. Mom's staying here with Lucifer, and so are you unless we need you. _Capiche_?"

It was harsh, but there were only good intentions behind the words. Cas made a few more halfhearted attempts to convince Dean otherwise, but in the end, there would only be three leaving the Bunker. Even then, the angel was rather disgruntled about the whole thing.

And then Gabriel finally showed up. His entrance was loud and exaggerated, like it often was whenever he was in a relatively good mood. "Guess who's…" he exclaimed, trailing off when he saw Sam and Dean's faces. He continued in a normal voice, slowly making his way down to the world map table. "Okay, what is it?"

"What is what?"

"Don't give me that. You have that look—" Gabriel pointed a finger at them "—the 'We Have Something Very Important To Tell You, Gabriel' one."

Dean looked at Sam, who directed a signature bitchface back at his brother. "We got a call a couple days ago from someone in Oregon. _This_ is what showed up in an article the next morning," Sam said, sliding over his laptop.

"Well, it's not Reynard," Gabriel muttered, tilting the screen to see it better.

It was said under Gabriel's breath, and Dean only barely made out the words it. "I'm sorry— Reynard?" he asked when Sam didn't appear to have heard anything.

Gabriel's eyes snapped up as the archangel broke out of whatever deep thoughts he was in. "Uh, he's a trickster I saw in San Francisco yesterday."

That was… a very straightforward answer (albeit rather nonchalant and offhanded manner) coming from the archangel. Dean supposed that Gabriel was still feeling a bit bad about the whole super-secrets thing about Crowley, though it wasn't like Dean knew Gabriel in and out. Dean was pretty sure that even Gabriel didn't know what was going on in his head half the time.

"I'll tell you more about it later, but this is far more interesting," he went on, zooming in on the main picture. "One thing's for sure: that's grace. It might even be… Hmm."

"What? It might be what?" Dean prodded. "Don't just stop there."

"I'm just saying that, _yes_ , it is grace, but it's not from any of the angels," Gabriel began to explain, a frown on his face as he continued to look at the picture. "I would know. I have my informants. The thing is, if it's _archangel_ grace, there's no way that's all of it. Even mine would have been at least three times as much as this."

Dean took a moment to stare at the picture himself. The article only had blurry of something very bright and very _big_ shooting through the sky that night. The other picture they had – the one Gabriel was looking at right now – was from the girl who had called them. She wasn't a hunter but she _knew_ , and the picture she'd sent had shown the swirling mass of light to be about the size of a small house, hidden away in the tall coniferous trees of the region.

Sam reached a hand over and zoomed out, only to swipe left on the screen, pulling up the video. They all watched it play, and Gabriel's frown deepened. _Not good_ , Dean thought.

"If I'm being perfectly honest, I'm more concerned about how the grace isn't being absorbed into the surrounding forest. It should have already started converting to fit the environment as soon as it hit the ground, but it's just… _sitting there_." Gabriel paused, staring at something Sam and Dean couldn't see. "No wonder I couldn't sense it— We need to go. Right now. Where was this taken?"

Sam scrambled to pull up the coordinates and general directions to the location site of the grace that the girl had sent with the images. As soon as Gabriel took a solid glance of the numbers describing longitude and latitude, he snapped his fingers. Suddenly, Sam and Dean were no longer standing in the map room but in a forest.

The trees towered above their heads, and the animals that lived amongst the plants chittered and tweeted. Sunlight flittered in through the branches, giving an almost ethereal feel to the place. Something was decidedly missing.

"Where is it?" Gabriel demanded, rounding on them and sweeping his hand in a gesture at the general area. "There's nothing here."

"What do you mean you couldn't sense it?" Sam asked, his mind still focused on something Gabriel said barely a minute earlier.

"It's gone," Gabriel said instead, shaking his head and scowling as his frustration flared. "Someone already took it."

* * *

 **A/N: Ever have that moment when you're reading a story and then you get inspired to write a bit of your own? That was me with this chapter ;-) Sorry if it's a bit choppy. Also, there's a reason I keep Gabriel and Lucilia's mother nameless, but it gets a little hard describing relationships like that. *** _ **sigh**_ *** We'll both just have to put up with it.**

 **Anyways, this may or may not be the last chapter you'll get for a while. It kind of just depends on how my first month of college goes. Until next time. (Sorry to leave you on a cliff hanger.)**


	19. Fade from View

**Chapter 18**

 **Fade from View**

Mick tried to ignore the bloodstains on Ketch's cuffs, visible just under the jacket sleeve. He was failing rather pitifully. Ketch himself must have been doing a much better job of ignoring Mick's staring. It wasn't like the bloodstains were unusual – it was practically expected given that Ketch did basically all of the field work.

Mick cleared his throat. "You're back early."

"Really? I hadn't noticed," Ketch replied smoothly, only the raised eyebrow and dry tone indicating his sarcasm.

"The typewriter is free if you want to make your report now," Mick said professionally, holding back a retort. "Nothing needing your particular skills came up since your last check in."

Again with the raised eyebrow, which had somehow intensified in its powers of unspoken derision. But Ketch didn't respond, merely picking up the small, black box that he'd brought with him. Mick hadn't seen it before. Though by the softly glowing engravings along its surfaces, he'd say it was some sort of artifact that would need to be carefully placed in storage before being sent back to London.

"What's that?" he asked before he could stop himself.

Ketch blinked, seeming to pause in an internal debate as he stared at Mick. Mick was already getting uncomfortable under the gaze when Ketch turned and started walking out of the room.

"You'll find out one of these days," the man called back before disappearing around a corner.

Mick sighed. While Ketch had answered his question, it only made that spark of curiosity burn hotter. That curiosity would get him killed _one of these days_ if he wasn't careful.

 **~o-O-o~**

Lucifer peered over the top of the book he was reading at his little brother, who was – for lack of a better word – sulking. Gabriel hadn't said a word since he got back from whatever 'case' Sam and Dean had planned. Though, obviously it hadn't been an actual case.

Lucifer wasn't stupid. He knew whatever it was had to do with either Michael or Raphael since they would have just outright told him if it had been anything else. Except for Crowley and/or Rowena. They might have kept quiet about that for a little while, but at the very least, they would have told him when they got back. However…

Sam had gone off to the Bunker's storage floors, inventory book already open in his hands as he headed down into the Bunker's depths. Dean, on the other hand, had outright ignored both Lucifer and Castiel, which a bit unusual since Dean didn't often ignore Castiel these days. Mary hadn't been told much about it, so she wasn't much help. Gabriel was still in a _mood_.

Lucifer sighed, closing his book and setting it down on the bench in the empty space next to him. "Gabriel."

Silence. Okay, that meant one of two things: Gabriel was either lost in his thoughts, or it was bad. Lucifer supposed it also could have been both, but he was also more willing to bet it was the first of the options.

"Gabriel," he called again.

Still nothing. Fine. Time to change tactics. This may or may not work. Lucifer hadn't had the time to properly test it out, but if he pushed his thoughts just enough…

Gabriel jerked back, falling from the chair he'd been perched in as the movement unbalanced his weight distribution. Both Gabriel and the chair hit the ground. Lucifer held back a wince at the loud clatter as the wood hit the stone tiling and then had to reign in a smirk at the long string of profanity.

"The hell was that for?" Gabriel grumbled, rubbing a nonexistent bump on his head.

Lucifer shrugged, scooting forward to sit up on the edge of the large wooden swing. "You weren't paying attention," he replied, as if it were a completely legitimate answer. Which it was, of course.

Gabriel gave him a look and then rolled his eyes, righting his chair but choosing to stay on the ground, though he did move to sit on the grass closer to Lucifer. "You didn't have to scare the shit out of me. How did you even do that?"

"Any angel can receive a prayer given the correct intentions from the sender," Lucifer said in response. Though, he hadn't prayed to Gabriel as much as—

"You mean you managed to use our bond to project a very focused thought?" Gabriel paused as he thought it over. "I guess even with your grace locked up… Yeah, it _could_ work."

"It _did_ work," Lucifer snipped, giving Gabriel's foot a slight kick.

Gabriel grinned, kicking back in playful retaliation. "You must have been working on that since—"

"Since the boy had his week or two of control, yes," Lucifer cut in before Gabriel could make any assumptions. "I figured that if I could feel him even without accessibility to my grace, then I should be able to make it work for us, too."

"Neat."

And back to other thoughts. Lucifer could tell by the way Gabriel seemed to be looking somewhere distant. He frowned. What was it going to take to keep Gabriel's attention here and now? If he was going to get answers, he needed Gabriel to be present to answer his questions.

"Gabriel," he tried again.

His brother blinked, only slightly coming back to himself. "Hmm?"

Lucifer paused for only a moment's hesitation before forcing the words out. "Was— Was it Michael?" he asked.

Gabriel stared at him, an amber-eyed weight pressing down on him. Then Gabriel looked away, dropping his head into his hands. He stayed like that for a tense minute before he got up suddenly. Holding out his left hand, Gabriel snapped the fingers of his right hand, the sound echoing in the small clearing.

A small vial of grace appeared in Gabriel's outstretched hand.

"The majority of it was gone when we got there," Gabriel started, right hand lowering to his side even as his left hand stayed between them. "It took me over four hours, but I was able to scavenge this."

Lucifer couldn't take his eyes off of the grace. He didn't have to use his own to know that it _was_ Michael's. But— If Gabriel had spent four hours collecting this and he had collected all that was left ( _of course_ he had; otherwise he wouldn't have spent four hours _scavenging_ )…

 _Wait a minute._

"Where's the rest of it then? It can't have just disappeared—"

Gabriel let out a low growl, stunning Lucifer back into silence. "I _know_ , someone got there before we did."

That… That was bad. That was _beyond_ bad. But it also meant something else, something _important_ : "Michael doesn't have his grace."

Lucifer reached a hand out to pick up the vial. It hummed in his hand – almost as if it recognized him. He inwardly scoffed at the thought. _As if._ He turned his gaze back upwards to see Gabriel giving him a concerned look. The identity of the grace's true owner hadn't escaped him either.

"What should we do, Lucifer?" Gabriel asked, all seriousness and not a trace of anything that. "If— Even if I didn't sense the grace, I would have felt Michael getting it back, but if it wasn't him that took it—"

"He could be human," Lucifer finished in a soft whisper.

Lucifer had to put the vial of grace down as he steadied himself, knuckles white against the auburn color of the bench's wood frame, feet planted firmly on the ground. He forced himself to breathe. _In. And out. In. Out._

It was decidedly _green_ in the clearing, leaving the blue of the sky and brown bark of the trees almost as an afterthought. Lucifer remembered the first time he and Gabriel had ventured into the area – back on that Thanksgiving night, back when things were declining from perfect but still okay.

Lucifer hadn't given the place much thought again until the boy had suggested it as a nice area to put in a patio or gazebo with a chair or two and a wooden bench swing. About a day after the archangel was back in charge, Gabriel had disappeared for an hour before suddenly grabbing Lucifer's hand to drag him outside. Since then, Lucifer had decided that his favorite thing about the clearing was the distance.

A good ten minutes' walk from the Bunker, they were surrounded by nature and _only_ nature, Gabriel's minor embellishments doing nothing to subtract from that. Neither the Winchesters nor Castiel knew about the clearing's location, just that he and Gabriel sometimes went there now. It was _theirs_ , a place of their own. Not necessarily home, but still a safe haven.

"Lucifer…"

 _It hurt._ Just the thought of Michael as a _human_ — Lucifer could see himself and Michael in Sam and Dean. But Sam had never been Lucifer, and Dean could never be Michael. Because Michael was _Michael_.

Two warm hands rested themselves on his shoulders, staying there even when he tensed. His eyes slowly refocused on his brother when Gabriel slid his hands down to pull him into a hug. Lucifer couldn't bring himself to return the embrace, but he did relax somewhat into the touch.

He should be the one who was doing this for Gabriel, not the other way around. Then again, he had failed as a brother a long time ago.

" _Don't think that._ " Gabriel's arms tightened around him. "Besides, if anything, we all failed. It wasn't just you."

Lucifer let a frown form. He supposed Gabriel wasn't wrong, but of the four of them, he had messed up the worst. A series of mistakes that culminated into his screwed up life.

"Lucifer," Gabriel growled, pulling back to look him in the eyes. " _Stop it._ If Mary finds out you're doing this again, she'll have your backside."

The thing was, Lucifer couldn't help it. The thoughts didn't happen nearly as often as they used to, especially since he'd been getting 'better'. For some reason, if Gabriel wasn't able to snap him out of it right when the thoughts started, only Mary seemed to be capable of bringing him back from the edge of destruction, or whatever other dramatic metaphor described his 'funks'.

"That's seems like a rather cruel and unusual punishment for you to sic her on me," Lucifer mumbled.

"We only have your best interests in mind," Gabriel replied seriously. He was doing that a lot nowadays – being serious. It didn't suit him.

Lucifer sighed a fake sigh, more touched than amused. "Yes, Gabriel."

A silence was cast between them, though neither went to break it. Gabriel eventually sat down next to Lucifer, and they both watched the wildlife flourish around them. The sun was setting when Lucifer finally spoke up, mentioning that they should probably go inside if they didn't want to miss dinner.

"We could just have it out here," Gabriel countered.

Lucifer raised an eyebrow. "And worry the others?"

"Since when do you care?"

This time he rolled his eyes. "Since you all became mother hens," he retorted.

Gabriel paused, head inclining in agreement. "I think Mary is more of a bear than a chicken though."

"Hmm, true," Lucifer said after a pause of his own.

The sun set, and the stars came out. Neither of them moved.

" _I missed this._ "

" _I wish we could have shared it with them._ "

" _One day, Gabriel. Perhaps one day, we might._ "

 **~o-O-o~**

A week later, Gabriel was on Sam's tablet-laptop-thing – whatever, he was using it to do some research ( _bleh_ ). He needed to find out what Reynard was up to before the trickster did something that made a hunter catch wind of him.

It had shocked Gabriel to see the fox outside of his usual haunts. Typically, Reynard hardly ever went far beyond France's borders and never ventured outside of Europe. Something must have happened to make the fox come to America – _to finally visit Coyote? no, that wasn't it_ – and whatever it was couldn't have been good.

Crossing paths with Reynard in San Francisco had been legitimately coincidental. Those vulpine eyes had look at him with matching surprise right before narrowing into a challenging stare. Reynard hadn't wanted anyone else to know he was there. In fact, Reynard had seemed _scared_. But why?

After coming across yet another dead end, Gabriel was sorely tempted to make the tablet-laptop explode and disintegrate into itty bitty little bits. As far as he could tell without physically going over there, nothing big on the supernatural radar was going on in Europe. And Gabriel would much rather have a sit-down and talk with Reynard before having to go scour Europe to figure out what was going on.

This, of course, had problems of its own – the first one being that Gabriel didn't know where Reynard was now. Gabriel supposed the trickster fox could have stayed in San Francisco, but there was also the high possibility that Reynard had moved on after seeing Gabriel. And if that was the case, it became a matter of where Reynard went.

However, Reynard was good at covering his tracks. He had learned from the best after all (okay, maybe not _the_ best, but definitely _one of_ the best). This was going to suck if this was a case of the student proving himself better than the teacher.

Gabriel drummed his fingers on the table, forefinger barely brushing the edge of the laptop. He was running out of ideas. There wasn't exactly a whole lot that he could do while stuck in the Bunker. Well… not stuck, but relatively grounded. He could technically leave, but he really shouldn't until Sam, Dean and Castiel got back from the minor ghost case they'd picked up the other day.

Mary was out, too. She'd gotten a call from a hunter friend, who had asked if she could help with some rugarus. Mary, finally succumbing to the itching need to get out of the Bunker for a while, had easily responded with a resounding yes.

This left Gabriel and Lucifer in the Bunker. They could have both gone out themselves, but Lucifer didn't like leaving the Bunker nowadays, which was understandable. That didn't keep Mary from insisting that Lucifer needed to get out more, and it didn't help that Lucifer also hated staying inside for more than a couple days at a time (which was still far more than most humans could last before they felt the need to get some fresh air).

Some typing and staring at the laptop's screen later only resulted in another dead end... Gabriel was sure that if he were in an anime, there would have been multiple blood vessels pumping all over his head and possibly even all over the rest of the screen. He wasn't getting anywhere like this!

That was it— "Lucifer! We're going out!"

There was a long pause before the rather predictable response: "Right now?"

"Yes! _Now_." Gabriel let himself grin. This was one of the rare occasions that Lucifer was amenable to leaving. Perfect.

"Where are we even going at this time of night?" Lucifer asked, rubbing his face as he wandered into the library. "What would even be open? It's… two in the morning."

Gabriel blinked and looked down at the time shown on the laptop. Huh. It was pretty early. Speaking of— "Hey! We talked about this. What are you doing up at _two in the morning_?" he demanded, getting completely off topic. _Whatever, I'll get back to it in a minute._

"We talked about me making a habit of sleeping every day, not maintaining a healthy sleep habit," Lucifer huffed, setting himself down in the chair across from Gabriel.

"You might not be human, but you're close enough," Gabriel reminded him, point a chastising finger (wait – could fingers be chastising?). "You need to sleep and eat and stay hydrated just like a human does, even if it's not as often."

"I do sleep," Lucifer protested, though it was somewhat undermined by the dark circles under his eyes.

Gabriel closed the laptop so there was nothing in between them. "You're exhausted."

"It's not like I'm going to get anymore sleep tonight," he grumbled. "Besides, you're the one who wanted to go out."

Gabriel narrowed his eyes. Lucifer was technically right on both points. But still… No, no buts. Going out would actually be better for Lucifer than staying cooped up in here for the rest of the night.

"We're going to LA."

Lucifer raised an eyebrow at that. "Are you ready to go back there?"

"I'm trying to find someone, Luci." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "It'll take like an hour tops, and then we're moving on."

"Is there a particular reason you think this person is in LA?" he asked with a frown.

It took Gabriel a second to figure out how to word his answer in a way that was understandable. "It's where I would go next if I wanted to dish some trickster justice on the ignoble, rich population."

Lucifer let out a sigh. "All right," he said after a moment. "As long as we get back before the others do."

"Of course," Gabriel replied cheekily. "I'm not stupid."

"I never said you were," Lucifer murmured rather fondly.

Gabriel waved a finger at him. "It has been implied on occasion."

It had its intended effect: Lucifer laughed – not a full on, body rolling laugh, but still something that was more than a chuckle.

And later that morning, as the two brothers walked the streets of Downtown Los Angeles in a comfortable silence, their prey stalked them. Always a good hundred feet behind but always close enough for sharp eyes to easily follow. A low growl sounded in the back of the fox's throat. He was supposed to stay away.

A blink was all it took to lose track of the shorter one – Loki, Gabriel, whatever he called himself these days. His ears picked up the rustle of feathers behind him. Turning sharply, he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. He winced and lost his footing as the ground shifted beneath his feet, and suddenly he was in a warehouse (of all places) with his hunters towering above him.

"Long time, no see, Reynard."

* * *

 **A/N: Hey, look~ I updated. (I'm struggling, guys.)**


	20. Everything I Do

**Precursor Note: Watch out for a few naughty French/German/Dutch words/phrases… I'll put the translations at the bottom. I think most of it is correct. You should be able to follow along with what's being said even without the translations.**

* * *

 **Chapter 19**

 **Everything I Do**

Lucifer watched carefully as the expression on the trickster fox's face went from shock to fury in less than a second.

"Long time, no see?" he spat, scrambling to stand up in his anger. " _Schrauben Sie, Arschloch!_ The last time I saw you before the other week was when you let those _connards_ hunt me down so they could skin me!

"And then the next think I know, the world is ending and you're _ein Erzengel_ , which really wasn't as shocking as it should have been. Fast-forward about eight years, the world is ending for the fourth time, you're back from the dead, and the Old Men are systematically having anyone who doesn't make a contract with them hunted down and slaughtered if they haven't already left—"

Gabriel held up his hands in front of him, attempting to placate his fox friend (though Lucifer was questioning the friend part). "Woah, slow down. Old Men? You mean the guys in charge of the British Men of Letters?"

"Who else? What other Old Men do you know, _stomme ezel_ ," the fox scoffed with a roll of his eyes.

Lucifer really needed to stop thinking about the trickster before them as a fox. After all, it was a redhead that Gabriel had whisked away to this warehouse (" _Come on, Gabriel. Really? A warehouse?_ "). Gabriel had first realized they were being followed by the very person they were tracking down around six, and then two hours later, Gabriel had gotten bored enough to hurry this confrontation along.

Reynard wasn't exactly what Lucifer was expecting. First of all, the trickster was a lot more temperamental than Gabriel had described him to be. Then again, it sounded like the fox wasn't having the best of times right now. Anyways, Lucifer hadn't picked Reynard out to be a redhead. He probably should have seen it coming since it was Reynard the _Fox_ , but for some reason Lucifer hadn't associated the red-orange hair until Reynard some how managed to look like a pissed off fox (teeth bared, hackles raised, and all) even while appearing like a normal human male.

Well, normal except for the eyes. Why was it always the eyes that gave it away? A thought for another restless night, perhaps. Said eyes were heterochromatic. At a first glance, Lucifer thought they might have both been hazel (a lighter version of Sam's), but upon further inspection, Lucifer noticed that one was green while the other was a light brown. It should also be mentioned that Reynard's pupils were thin vertical slits, just like a fox's.

If Lucifer had always been human, having those eyes stare at him might have been unsettling. But, alas, once upon a time, Lucifer had been a fully fledged archangel with full use of his grace, and even with aforementioned powers currently unavailable to him, a mere demigod wasn't about to cow him with just a glare.

" _L'enfer_ are you looking at, _ancien diable_ ," the fox growled at him after finally taking note of his presence, or at the very least acknowledging that Lucifer wasn't just there for show.

Of course, Lucifer took slight offense to this. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or even the bad week— no, bad _month_ he'd been having. Either way, he retorted with something fierce: "Just a kicked puppy that I really couldn't care less about."

Gabriel leveled a glare of his own on Lucifer. "Don't antagonize him, Luci," he reprimanded half-heartedly.

"No, no, let the wingless angel pick his fights," the trickster cut in with a feral grin. "We'll see how high and mighty you feel—"

"Reynard, _no_ ," Gabriel cut in just as quickly.

The fox rounded on Gabriel, which must have been the plan – keeping Reynard's ire away from Lucifer. "And why should I listen to you, huh? If anything, you're the one who owes me _een gunst_."

Gabriel frowned. It was only there for a split second before he drew his face into a blank mask, but even that was enough to spark worry in Lucifer's chest. A favor? What could Gabriel possibly owe this fox?

"I paid you back for that a long time ago," Gabriel bit out. "It would be null and void now either way."

"Well, you're not incorrect there, but perhaps you've forgotten about another little venture that cropped up, say, some seventy-odd years ago," Reynard teased, waving a disdainful finger at them.

The sudden change almost gave Lucifer whiplash. Since when had Reynard gained the upper hand in this conversation? Surely it hadn't been when the trickster brought up the favor… No, it had been a little before that – when Lucifer had insulted the stupid fox. What Gabriel said after had been a warning, not a reprimand. _Damn it. How had he missed that?_

"All's fair in love and war, Reynard. I don't owe you anything."

Lucifer thought fast. What happened seventy years ago? It would have been in the 1940s… so, World War Two? Gabriel had been involved in that? It hadn't ever been brought up by Gabriel, and Lucifer doubted that Gabriel would have even wanted to go anywhere near a war again – human or otherwise.

"But it wasn't _Krieg_ and it certainly wasn't _Liebe_ that brought you to me back then, was it?" A flash of canine teeth. That fox was enjoying this. "I really don't get why the others couldn't see that you hated yourself so openly even then. I guess they just didn't know where to look."

"Shut your mouth."

Vulpine eyes snapped over to clash with blue. "Say again?"

"I said: Shut. Your. Mouth," Lucifer snarled.

Lucifer could feel Gabriel tense beside him, but Lucifer wasn't about to back down. Not when this lowlife pagan was talking shit about Gabriel and had been for the entirety that they had been in each others' presences. Not when Gabriel didn't deserve this kind of—

"I like him," Reynard said suddenly, throwing Lucifer off. The fox turned to give Gabriel an inquisitive look. "I thought you said all of your brothers were _komplette Hähne_."

Gabriel had the decency to have a sheepish air about him. "Not all the time…"

Heterochromic, vulpine eyes stared Gabriel down for another minute before the fox gave an exaggerated shrug and made a show of stretching. "What did you want me for exactly?" Those eyes narrowed in warning. "And don't just say that you wanted to catch up."

"Well…" Gabriel trailed off, glancing over at Lucifer.

"Hey now, at least look over at me when you're about to turn my life upside down," Reynard huffed, throwing his arms up in exasperation before crossing them again.

Knowing that Gabriel wasn't all that comfortable with this whole confrontation, Lucifer was about to intervene again when Gabriel managed to do as the fox suggested. "We— I have reason to believe that… something big is about to happen, and you were around when one of the signs occurred."

Reynard sniffed in a slight bout of disdain. "Why would I want to be around some archangel's _grâce_ falling out of the sky?"

That made Lucifer's insides freeze, and it looked like Reynard's response had a similar affect on Gabriel. The trickster fox knew a lot more about what was going on than he had originally let on. Why… _Why were they always behind? Why did it feel like they were the last ones to learn about anything?_

"Huh, guess I caught you two with your pants down," the fox muttered. Then he spoke up with a clearer voice. "Look, if you really want to know, I hear there's a crawlie out northwest of the Seattle area— you know, in that Mount Storm King. Oh, it's a beauty, but it's been sleeping a good long while…"

Reynard trailed off, getting a gleam in his eyes – a very not-good gleam. "That is, until some poor sods woke it up. Hey, and maybe you'll catch wind of some British Men of Letters while you're up there doing your investigating with the Winchesters."

Gabriel lunged forward suddenly, startling both Reynard and Lucifer. Gabriel grabbed the fox by his wrist and held on with a vice grip. "Oh no you don't," Gabriel tsked. "You're not out of the woods yet."

" _Merde— Merde! Gabriel, non!_ "

 **~o-O-o~**

There was something… different now. Mick couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew it had to do with Ketch's early return and that warded, black box he hadn't seen since. In the week that followed, Mick had yet to have a single full night's rest, and it was starting to show.

Ketch didn't often comment or show acknowledgement of this, but whenever he did, Mick continually brushed him off. However, Mick knew that eventually Ketch would legitimately confront him about it. Mick wasn't looking forward to that eventual (and inevitable) confrontation, but it was at least _something_ to know it was coming, right?

Well, Mick wouldn't have an answer for Ketch either way, so it didn't really matter.

What Mick did have was a case. It didn't even seem like one until several instances were flagged around the area. Mick still wasn't completely sure that it was a legitimate case, but he had to give Ketch something before the other man got stir crazy from not having a case on hand.

Mick looked down at the file he'd made for the case. One of the first instances reported in the area had been from over a thousand years ago, and even then it was an oral telling of a large creature sleeping in a mountain. Over time, minor things – spanning across generations of families – cropped up, always pointing back to this mysterious sleeping creature. Only very recently did it become anything worth investigating.

At first, it appeared to be a simple matter of humans trafficking supernatural artifacts. Then one of the humans had been killed after selling certain things they wouldn't have had unless they'd come across a very specific type of creature: _a dragon_.

Typically, Mick wouldn't have bothered with disturbing a dragon, especially one that had been sleeping for hundreds of years without any major incidences, but the Code made it to where Mick would have to bring it up with Ketch eventually.

A soft ping made Mick look up from the case file to his computer. A nest of vampires had made itself known in a nearby town about three hours away. Maybe..?

Mick stood and left his office. He needed to give Ketch a case after all.

 **~o-O-o~**

Dean walked in only to stop at seeing one too many persons in the library. "Who the hell is that?"

"I hate you _énormément_ right now," muttered the new guy – a redhead who was being held in place by Gabriel.

Gabriel, who promptly replied, "I love you too."

Lucifer rolled his eyes, and Dean – if he hadn't been otherwise preoccupied with staring at the redhead – was tempted to do the same. "Guys, I'm not kidding. Who the hell is that?" he asked, emphasizing the question.

Dean didn't have to turn around to know that Sam and Cas had come to a stop behind him. But Dean did look back to see Cas's disapproving frown. To his credit, Gabriel didn't even wither under such a expression.

Instead, Gabriel began the introductions with a semi-false cheer. "Gang, meet… well, you'll know him best by Reynard the Fox— he's a trickster. Reynard, this is Sam and Dean Winchester and one of my little brothers, Castiel."

They were all met with a somewhat defeated sigh before a sly grin quickly took its place. "A pleasure, truly," the pagan said with a little bow, his voice lilting with a slight European accent, though Dean was pretty sure that he could pick out a mostly French origin.

Right. So this 'Reynard' had to be one of Gabriel's pagan friends. Dean should've figured that all of the tricksters knew each other since most pagan deities had some inlinking to who the others were. Dean also had to wonder just how many _friends_ (or even better, _passing acquaintances_ ) Gabriel had from his days traipsing as Loki or whatever. The number was probably somewhere in the thousands; Dean was being generous and gave Gabriel one friend/acquaintance per year he'd been a trickster.

As for the trickster fox himself, Reynard didn't look like he turned too many heads. A couple people might stare because of his eyes, but other than that Dean figured the trickster could blend into a crowd without any trouble. That being said, the introductions Gabriel gave did not explain why Reynard was in the Bunker.

Gabriel must have been tuned in to picking up on Dean's thoughts because the archangel quickly held up his hands in a mildly placating gesture. "He's not staying long. I'm sending him somewhere safe after you hear a few things from him."

Dean frowned but turned his attention away from Gabriel. If Reynard had something to say, then Dean would hear it from Reynard. "So… what's got Gabriel scrambling for candy?"

Somehow that grin grew, going past human physicality. Dean pointedly ignored the way Reynard's teeth (especially his canines) looked more pointed than a normal human's. "Oh, just the sudden exodus of the supernatural from Western Europe," he answered casually, as if such a thing was part of every day news. "Not to mention the _geringfügig_ problem of the missing archangel grace."

The insert-crickets-chirping silence that followed lasted for about three whole seconds before Dean blinked, which somehow magically shattered the stupor that had come with Reynard's nonchalant bomb drop. "Excuse me?"

"Um, Dean—"

Dean held up a hand, interrupting Sam with the sharp gesture and then pointing at their _guest_. "No, no. Why does this guy know about something that was supposed to stay in-house?" he directed at Gabriel and Lucifer, who was clearly in on whatever had lead Gabriel to bring Reynard to the Bunker.

"Oh, please, there's always someone who knows more about something than you do," Reynard drawled before either archangel could answer. "Therefore, if you've got the right connections, you know everything."

"Not even God knows everything," Dean heard Lucifer mutter, which meant anyone else also in range heard it too.

Reynard shrugged. "Everything important then," he corrected himself.

"So you have connections that Gabriel doesn't?" Sam asked, returning back to the matter at hand (ever the practical one).

"Well…" Reynard trailed off, tapping a finger against his lips in thought and crossing his other arm across his chest. "Not really, but it'd help if Gabriel wasn't on such bad standing with everyone these days. Of course, I say this as if he was ever in good standing with most."

"Hey!"

Dean ignored Gabriel's protest in favor of getting down to business. "Alright, and what exactly do you know about the grace?"

"Ask these two _golflengten_ ," Reynard replied dismissively. "I already pointed them where you need to look."

"Okay, then what about the Europe thing?" Dean asked, trying to get as much out of the fox as he could, which wasn't looking like much. "You couldn't have picked anywhere besides America?"

Reynard gave Dean a look – not scathing or bemused, just a _look_. "Winchester, when you've been forced to flee from the only home you've known since your _Konzeption_ and the only options that lie before you end in death, wouldn't you pick the one that leads you past friends?"

A different kind of silence fell then. It was suffocating, and Gabriel had looked away, a flash of guilt crossing his face. Dean didn't know what to say. He _couldn't_ say anything.

And then Reynard gave Dean whiplash by suddenly smiling and cheerfully saying, "Of course, I also just wanted to have _plaisir_ and what not. It had become rather boring over in Europe anyway without all of the other fantastical creatures such as myself hanging about anymore. Truly, I was stuck between going to Africa or the United States, and since Anasazi came here before he died, I figured I might as well take a look around to see what the fuss was all about. And I must say, it's quite the playground.

"Plus, ever since those Marvel movies came out, there are so many adoring fans who love the portrayal of Loki, and because someone here never taps into those pagan powers of his anymore, it goes to the rest of us tricksters. And, oh, it feels so… invigorating to have people worship you nowadays— in a sense, anyway."

Gabriel had crossed his arms and rolled his eyes at least twice by the end of Reynard's ramble. Meanwhile, Lucifer had looked faintly amused until that last sentence, but Cas was there to quickly move forward and put a placating hand on his arm.

"Right," Dean muttered, and Sam nudged him with a hard elbow – to which Dean shot him a look of ' _what?_ ', which Sam just let out a sigh at.

"Look, um, Reynard?" Sam started awkwardly. "Could you just— We'd appreciate it if you gave us some straight answers. It's help move things along, and you'd be free to do your thing."

 _Way to negotiate with a trickster, Sammy_ , Dean thought, barely reining in an eye roll.

Reynard seemed to think about Sam's proposition though, actually bothering to look Sam over for the first time (or what seemed to be the first time). The trickster fox then glanced back at Gabriel, who just raised an eyebrow at him. Sighing, Reynard shrugged and began:

"About a month ago I was near Seattle for… personal reasons. I overheard some juicy rumors about a beastie somewhere around the Storm King's mountain. Supposedly, there were some _Idioten_ who decided to steal from its horde, and it woke up. The rest was rubbish, but when I popped in to see if the rumors were right about the first couple of things, well…"

Reynard paused, a frown forming as he chose his next words carefully. "Gabriel, you really ought to be more aware of all the prophecies and _Scheiße_ going around. Sure, some are nonsense, but you know there are ones that are dead accurate."

"If it's the one about all the archangels coming back together on Earth—" Gabriel started.

But Reynard was already shaking his head and waving a hand in a dismissive gesture. " _Non, non_. That one's ancient news. I'm talking about the other one."

Dean wanted to slam his head against a table – 'the other one' was so specific. By what Reynard was implying, there had to be hundreds if not thousands of prophecies, which could be about anything from when someone was going to eat lunch to exactly their current predicament.

Somehow Gabriel knew which one Reynard was talking about. It was almost funny, really. One moment Gabriel was as confused as the rest of them, and then the next it was like watching him have epiphany. And Dean used the word 'like' because it was a subtle thing, only a slight tilt of the head and widening of amber eyes. Then Gabriel's brows came together in a hard frown.

"That one was supposed to be about…" he trailed off, not completing the thought for everyone else who needed to know what the hell the two tricksters were talking about.

"Apparently not," Reynard drawled, checking out the state of his right hand's nails.

That was it. "You two wanna share with the rest of the class," Dean bit out.

"Oh, nothing much," Reynard hummed right as Gabriel answered, "Soothsayer prophecies."

"There hasn't been a soothsayer born for hundreds of years," Cas commented in the following silence. At Sam's questioning look, the angel continued, "Soothsayers are like prophets… but not. Unlike a prophet, what a soothsayer sees is easily changeable and was therefore unreliable at best. Still, there were a few who were able to come very close to fate's designs. Those are the prophecies that Gabriel and Reynard are speaking of."

"More specifically the ones from the soothsayer who lived in Pompeii before Vesuvius erupted," Gabriel added with a distant look in his eyes. "She tried to convince her family to leave, but they wouldn't believe her because she was barely fourteen and none of the other so-called soothsayers or oracles foresaw the mountain raining fire down upon them."

"And she had other prophecies?" Sam prompted, gingerly steering away from the girl's obvious death.

Reynard nodded. "At one point, they were called Varinia's Grand Prophecies. You won't find hide nor hair of them nowadays. They're not that special, but they were all the rage back then."

"One of the last that she envisioned was about the Apocalypse," Cas halfheartedly argued, more of a statement than anything. "And another before that covered both world wars. Several others pertained to the reigns of successful monarchs and rulers."

"So…" Dean began, regaining everyone's attention and attempting to get them back on track. "What exactly did she have to say about this that you thought was about something else?"

Gabriel wore an uncomfortable expression. "Well… I thought it was about Cassie here, but if it's not and Michael is missing his grace, then…"

"Then it stands to reason that we really should stop making assumptions about things," Lucifer cut in. "I mean, really, when was the last time a prophecy has come true recently?"

Reynard made a considering face which then morphed into something that vaguely resembled one that Gabriel made when he was impressed. "Fair point. Can I go now?"

For a moment, Dean didn't think Gabriel would relent – mainly because he didn't think they were done. But Gabriel muttered something Dean couldn't make out and snapped his fingers. When nothing immediately happened (that Dean could tell anyway), Gabriel let out an irritated huff. He then grabbed Reynard's wrist and pulled him along as Gabriel left the Bunker through the main entrance.

"What was that about?" Sam asked Cas.

"You can't summon fairy rings indoors!" Reynard called back over his shoulder before turning back to Gabriel. "You know, I don't think it's such a good idea to hand me over to the fae—"

The Bunker door slammed shut behind the two tricksters, cutting off whatever Reynard was about to say.

"That could've gone better," Lucifer said after a moment.

And Dean really couldn't have agreed more.

* * *

 **A/N: So, researching and making Reynard the Fox was fun (and I had no idea he was in a TV show called** _ **Magicians**_ **until I looked up images of him); however, fleshing him out and giving him quirks (** _ **ahem**_ **, certain non-English usage) was a bit of a pain, but I think it was worth it. I may or may not revisit him later. Maybe in like a cameo or even have someone mention him. (Idk if you can tell, but Reynard is by far one of my favorite non-human OCs to have played with.)**

* * *

 **Translations (in order and mostly according to Google Translate):**

 _Schrauben Sie, Arschloch!_ [German] — Screw you, asshole!

 _connards_ [French] — assholes (or other not so nice things)

 _ein Ernengel_ [German] — an archangel

 _stomme ezel_ [Dutch] — literally: stupid donkey (but I was going for dumb-ass)

 _L'enfer_ [French] — the hell

 _ancien diable_ [French] — former devil

 _een gunst_ [Dutch] — a favor

 _Krieg_ , _Liebe_ [German] — War, Love

 _komplette Hähne_ [German] — complete cocks (I wanted utter dicks, but this worked too)

 _grâce_ [French] — grace (yes, I know it doesn't actually mean an angel's grace)

 _Merde— Merde! Gabriel, non!_ [French] — Shit— Shit! Gabriel, no! (okay, technically _merde_ can mean some other not so clean words, but it gets the point across..?)

 _énormément_ [French] — enormously/immensely/very much/so much

 _geringfügig_ [German] — slight/minor

 _golflengten_ [Dutch] — wavelengths (it's a joke?)

 _Konzeption_ [German] — conception (like the birth of an idea; in this case, Reynard)

 _plaisir_ [French] — pleasure/entertainment/fun

 _Idioten_ [German] — idiots

 _Scheiße_ [German] — shit

 _Non, non._ [French] — No, no.


	21. The Long Nights Begin

**Chapter 20**

 **The Long Nights Begin**

"When I said call me if you need me, I did _not_ mean that you could dump another freeloader on me," Queenie hissed, glancing over at Reynard, who was doing his best impression of oblivious innocence from where he was standing several feet away.

"Hey, it's not my fault Merlin decided to shack up with you guys after Arthur died," Gabriel snapped back. "Look, Reynard just needs a place to lay low for a while."

"That half-breed wizard said the same thing, and he's been in that blasted tower of his in the Glades for over a thousand years! And Ron won't kick him out because Merl always kisses up to Annie with all of his stupid flowers."

Gabriel blinked, a certain memory involving all of the fae royalty that should never be spoken about aloud replaying in his mind. "I thought you love his flowers."

A fierce blush bloomed over Queenie's cheeks, spreading up to the tips of her pointed ears. "That was ages ago!" she exclaimed, wings fluttering in a wild mix of defensive embarrassment at being called out and affronted shock from him even bringing it up. "Besides, you're the one who introduced his parents to each other."

"How is that a bad thing?" he replied with the beginnings of a smug grin. "How's he doing anyway?"

"He's as fine as anyone can be stuck in a tower with extremely powerful clairvoyance as his only connection to the outside world, and don't change the subject—" She let out an irritated huff, glancing over at Reynard before waving her hand and muttering a silencing spell to keep the trickster fox from listening in on their conversation any further. "I take it neither you nor the Winchesters ever found the fairy killer."

Gabriel hated that he had to shake his head – silently telling her that no, they hadn't. It was frustrating to admit, but if Reynard's case was anything to go by, then Gabriel had a theory that might explain things, though it would need some investigating to have any real merit. At the very least, he and the Winchesters had helped spread the word to keep an eye out for any other odd occurrences like the fairy slaughter.

"What about the creature Reynard suggested we go see? Do you know anything about it?" he asked, knowing he wouldn't get much.

The fairy queen frowned thoughtfully. "He said this creature had been asleep for a long time? It could be any of the ancient ones, but if it has a horde… You could be looking for one of the draconic subspecies, and a big one at that if it's in a mountain," she mused.

"Great, a dragon," Gabriel muttered, sending a glare Reynard's way. Not that the other trickster saw it. Reynard was too busy pouting at being kicked out of the conversation.

Queenie gave him a hard look. "No, not just _a dragon_ … I understand that you're an archangel and all, but if you have to fight it and it really is a larger beast, that pointy blade of yours may pierce its hide but it'll be too short to reach its heart."

"I'll keep that in mind," Gabriel assured her. "Right, I have to organize the outing with the rest of the fam. Will you take Reynard with you?"

She let out an exasperated sigh. "You're not exactly giving me a choice here, Gabriel. And I'm inclined to take him anyway…" She trailed off, pausing before shaking her head. "He was driven out of Europe, and England was one of the first areas we were forced out of. America is becoming a beacon of freedom for creatures just as much as it is for humans."

A soft hum left him at the statement. She wasn't wrong. Something was going on that he'd been ignoring for a while now. If he didn't wrap things up with Michael's grace soon, he may have to give it up in favor of sorting out whatever this was first.

"Thanks for the pick-me-up from last time," he said in lieu of a goodbye.

She gave him a small smile, one that was deceivingly innocent. "Don't worry about it. Consider us even now. Goodness knows, Harlequin and I owe you this much—" Her expression fell into something far more concerned than he'd ever seen on her face before. "Look, what happened with your brother… that sent out ripples, Gabriel. Be careful, okay?"

"I will. Safe travels."

" _Ver tsadi._ "

 **~o-O-o~**

Mick had dreams. Not in the ideological sense, but during the times he was able to get some sleep without being woken a couple hours later by nightmares and memories, Mick dreamed. He could never remember his dreams, but he always woke feeling more alone than ever.

That in itself confused him whenever he tried to remember his dreams. As a child and later as he grew up to be a Man of Letters, he'd never been a particularly companionable person (and in no way was that because anyone who tried to get close to him felt _wrong_ ). Besides, in his line of work, it was best to just keep your distance.

It was what they were taught in Kendricks Academy: there's no place for emotions when it comes to the Code, and the Code takes precedent above all else.

And yet, no matter how hard the Academy sought to make them perfect little soldiers ( _why did that sound familiar?_ ), it was practically impossible to ask for no emotions. So, instead the Academy focused on controlling those emotions, bending them into the fold to the point that there was only room left for the Men of Letters' Code.

Which was perhaps part of the reason why Mick found it so funny – ironic? – that it was Arthur Ketch asking if Mick was alright. To be fair, Ketch had been subtly asking-not-asking the question for months – ever since they had gotten this assignment (yet again). It just happened to be now that the man bothered to ask out right.

 _Now_ , when Mick thought he might be falling over the edge of some precipice he couldn't even see.

And really, the answer was quite obvious. Mick didn't even need to say anything for Ketch to know that no, he was not alright. They weren't getting anywhere in America, not really, and if they came back empty handed… Well, there wasn't really a point to returning at all.

For some reason, that didn't make Mick feel as desperate as it should have.

"You know, if you really wanted me to go away so you can go on a daring little adventure, you could have just asked," Ketch told him in an almost teasing manner, grey eyes tracking his every movement.

"I—" Mick started before he stopped at Ketch's predatory grin.

"Come now, Mick," Ketch practically purred. "You should know better than to think I'd just let you waltz off to Washington State."

Mick frowned. He hadn't— "How did–?"

"Ah, ah," Ketch hushed him, getting up to move into Mick's personal space and causing Mick to fight with himself to not take a step back. "I can't have you going suicidal on me and running pants down to fight a dragon, now can I?"

Mick, still at a loss as to _how Ketch knew_ , could only blink as he watched Ketch leave to go get his gear.

 **~o-O-o~**

Kemuel had a problem – an archangel sized problem. After almost a month of avoiding the issue, she found herself back on Earth. While she was inclined to stick it to Raphael and not report back to Gabriel about the other archangel's presence in Heaven, Kemuel knew she would have to tell Gabriel and sooner rather than later. She still hated being called a _pet_.

Easily finding the meeting place Gabriel had decided upon during their last encounter, Kemuel settled down for a wait. Even though she had sent out the signal they had, it could be a little while before Gabriel would be able to respond. This would also be the first time she called to Gabriel and not the other way around. At least, it was the first time she was confident that he was answer.

By the first hour, she had grown impatient, and by the time the moon had begun to rise, she was getting worried. She was getting tempted to use the signal again when she sensed that she was no longer alone.

"Well then, I suppose you're yet another reason I've been stuck here for the past couple months," the demon grumbled. "Not that I can say much."

Kemuel was caught between being truly offended at the demon's words or merely affronted. Then again, Kemuel figured that Raphael alone stung more than anything the former King of Hell could come up with. That didn't mean Crowley had lost his reputation. He may have screwed up with his revenge plot on Lucifer by going against Gabriel, but he was still a force to be reckoned with.

"Where's Gabriel? I was to meet him here," she said neutrally. It wouldn't do to lose it over the demon's attitude.

The demon shrugged. "I've been on babysitting duties. Though if I had to guess, I'd say with the Winchesters. If you're desperate, you could sit outside their hidey-hole in Lebanon, Kansas."

Kemuel felt her eyebrow twitch. "I can't go to the Bunker. Not while Lucifer's there," she informed him.

"That's your problem, darling," he replied, gracing her with a little smirk.

 _Fine_. "You're in contact with him, aren't you? It would be in your contract."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "And how would you know that?"

Because Gabriel had told her. How else? Alas, Kemuel was feeling particularly petty. "I'd mind my own business if I were you. I hear Rowena is still adjusting to her new status, but you got the real short end of the stick. You're not exactly in anyone's good graces at the moment."

"Maybe not, but I'm still around, aren't I?"

"You have your uses," Kemuel admitted with a scoff. "But you're standing on a stool with a noose around your neck."

"Ah, yes, and Gabriel can easily kick that stool out from under me. I'm well aware," Crowley responded, a subtle tick in his face barely hiding his irritation with her.

Kemuel didn't doubt that Crowley knew he was toeing a thin line when it came to his continued existence, but she also didn't think he had the right context to how much Gabriel had been holding back when he forced the contract between them. In her opinion, Crowley had less to worry about than Gabriel did if the demon didn't hold up his end. (Though, knowing Crowley, that wouldn't be an issue.)

Crowley suddenly stiffened and looked vaguely eastward. "If you'll just excuse me a moment, there's a brat that's out past her bedtime," he muttered.

With that, he blinked away, off to wherever he'd deemed to be needed. But Kemuel wasn't about to wait until he had more free time. She followed him, keeping close behind and landing a second after he'd left. She was met with the sight of the former King of Hell blocking a nine-year-old girl from leaving a house.

"And where do you think you're going, hmm?" he asked her.

The girl seemed like she was about to respond when she finally took notice of Kemuel, which meant Crowley had to acknowledge her once more. Solid red eyes glared in her direction, and the girl tried (and failed) to hold back a flinch at the demonic display.

"Fly away, birdie," he bit out, his tense frame highlighting the clinching of his fists at his sides.

Kemuel briefly considered subtly insulting the demon in retaliation. Then it occurred to her that she might be overstepping a line laid out in his contract with Gabriel. Not that she knew what it might be exactly. Sure, she knew the general outline of Gabriel's deal with Crowley, but that didn't mean she knew every single line – not like Crowley or Gabriel would.

That didn't mean the angel couldn't take a guess. She let her grace and wings go passive and had her vessel take a somewhat submissive stance, hoping to placate the demon and get away from being perceived as a potential threat. Kemuel could admit to being a bit headstrong at times, but she wasn't stupid enough to trigger whatever was in the contract on purpose. That being said, she still needed to talk to Gabriel.

"Mr. Crowley?" the girl asked quietly, softly calling to her demonic guardian.

The soft words snapped him out of it, and he turned to look at her, eyes reverting back to something more human. "Go back inside, doll. Do whatever it is in the morning."

 **~o-O-o~**

"We can't wait for Mom to get back," Dean spoke up as soon as Gabriel sat down at the library table the rest had gathered around. "We need to go, now."

Out of the corner of his eye, Sam saw Lucifer raise an eyebrow. "Didn't think you'd want to rush into this so quickly," the fallen archangel muttered.

"It's pretty clear to me that this can't wait," Dean retorted with a huff.

Sam held back a weary sigh. His brother had a point. They couldn't ignore this, and they couldn't put it off either. Sam didn't quite agree that they had to leave _right now_. He'd rather wait until Mary could go with them, but she hadn't mentioned when she'd be back. There was no telling how long it might be until they saw her again – from at least several hours to a couple days.

"You can go with Gabriel and Lucifer while Cas and I follow behind with Mom," Sam suggested. That way they could keep hold of their lead without losing track of anyone. It would also mean they'd have to take separate cars in the end, but Sam would prefer the leg room for the inevitable long drive back to the Bunker.

There was also the small matter of Sam needing to call Eileen to cancel their weekend plans… again. He didn't want to make Dean feel guilty about dragging Sam away for the third time in a row. Eileen would understand – she always did. Heck, she might even try to convince Sam to let her join them on the case.

Except it wasn't a case. Not exactly. To even call it a special case would be a major understatement but not entirely inaccurate.

Maybe he could find a simple case somewhere relatively nice after this. He could tell Dean he was going on a hunt with Eileen (ignoring the teasing Dean would give him) and stay a couple more days in whatever town it happened to be. It wouldn't be too hard to find some nice locations for a date as long as they ended up somewhere—

"Small problem," Gabriel said suddenly. "Okay, not a _problem_ per se, but a minor detour on my end."

"Lemme guess. You've got to go check on something, and once you're done you'll meet back up with us?" Dean cut in before Gabriel could announce whatever he had planned.

Gabriel paused. "Yes, actually."

Sam saw Lucifer narrow his eyes, and it took Sam a moment, but eventually he noticed why Lucifer's focus suddenly zeroed in on Gabriel. There was an awkwardness in the pause that was pure Gabriel Bennett and a hesitance that was rare from the archangel. The synchrony wasn't a bad thing in and of itself, but in this context – the awkward hesitance to reveal something obviously important – it wasn't necessarily a good thing either.

Gabriel had everyone's attention as he minutely fidgeted in his seat. Sam knew he would come out with it on his own time, but Gabriel wouldn't say anything he didn't want to – not only because he was an archangel (and no one makes them do anything), but also because Gabriel had far more secrets than the rest of them combined. There were ways that Gabriel could lie and tiptoe around an issue, but there were also some things that the archangel couldn't say. And then there were the things that Gabriel needed to say but continually avoided.

Sam already had three guesses about what this was about (and the first two didn't count).

"So, I kind of need to go check up on Lucilia because I didn't actually kill Crowley," Gabriel blurted out, the words coming out so fast that it took all of Sam's brain's processing power to make sense of it before he missed the next bit. "And he's currently where she is because I more or less forced a deal on him—"

"We know," Sam, Dean, Castiel and Lucifer interrupted in unison.

"—I mean, it's not horrible, at least not for me, but— Wait," Gabriel stopped dead in his ramble that was far more Gabriel Bennett than archangel. He blinked, gaze moving to each of them before landing on Lucifer. "You already knew?"

Lucifer gave Gabriel what Sam was pretty sure was a fond look. "To be fair, Mary was the one who figured it out."

"But— That… _How?_ "

"I don't think you realize how much you and Lucifer confide in her, and Mom's not stupid. She was able to put two and two together," Sam pointed out.

Gabriel turned to stare at him with wide eyes. " _When?_ "

Sam looked at Castiel, who sighed and said, "Mary told me the night you left on the fairy murders case."

"And then they told me the night before you all got back," Lucifer added.

"Mom told me and Sam while you two were having some alone time together," Dean said, wrapping that up. "So, yeah, we know."

"Oh…" Gabriel looked down and murmured something Sam couldn't quite hear. Castiel must have if the concerned look he gave Gabriel meant anything, but the angel didn't bring it up. "And you know what's in the deal?"

Sam ground his heel into Dean's foot to keep his brother from saying anything. Dean shot him a glare, but Sam was already moving on. "That's between you and Lucifer and Crowley. If you want to tell us, that's up to you, but we get that the deal you made has some sensitive stuff in it."

A heavy weight that Sam hadn't truly noticed before seemed to lift off of Gabriel shoulders. The archangel sighed, and then after a pause he let out a low chuckle. Leaning back and looking up at the ceiling, Gabriel crossed his arms over his eyes – his chuckle turning into laughter, causing his shoulders to shake with the noise.

Gabriel didn't move from the pose even as he slowly regathered himself. Eyes still covered but a slight smile visible, Gabriel simply breathed, a quiet softly settling in the room. "Right," he whispered. " _Right_ … Of course."

Sam had the feeling that everything was going to be all right.

* * *

 **A/N: Kinda short, but lots of things are going on. (All aboard the Plot Train!)**


	22. All That Might Have Been

**Chapter 21**

 **All That Might Have Been**

He was lost in his memories again. Not _lost_ lost, but he wasn't about to leave them anytime soon. This time it was controlled. He knew when and where he was. It was more like watching a movie (but in his head). He could replay any number of scenes over and over again just because he liked them.

 _"Lu— Lucifer?! What are you doing? You can't just break into a place because they're not open right now!"_

 _"Well, it's this or we wait until tomorrow morning when all sorts of adults and pests will be filling this place to the brim."_

 _"But— it's— Ugh, fine. It's not like you'll listen to me. But I refuse to let you convince me to do this again."_

 _"Ah, yes, because I take great pleasure in watching you fall flat on your face because you can't ice skate."_

He hadn't, in fact, fallen. Not once. Lucifer had made sure of that. A steady hand had kept him upright the whole time, even when it wasn't actually there.

 _"Oh… Um, right… And how much money did you just spend to get her?"_

 _"Technically none, but it was around a thousand of these saint quartz things and a US dollar is approximately two of them, so… a lot."_

 _A sigh. "I guess if you really like her that much, it's worth it. I still can't believe I got you hooked on a gacha of all mobile games."_

And Lucifer still played the game sometimes. He would get out his phone and load the app to play an event or roll for some new servant. He wasn't sure why Lucifer liked it so much. Maybe it was because of the story plot or the addiction of being a collector or even the different servant themselves. It certainly wasn't just because of the style of the game.

 _"Thank you, and have a nice day!"_

 _"You too!"_

 _"Why do you always say that?"_

 _"Say what?"_

 _"You know what I mean."_

 _"It's called being polite."_

 _"Doesn't it get boring? Tedious?"_

 _"I guess it does get a bit tiring when the other person is being rude, but you can't really go wrong with trying to be nice to people because you can be."_

Lucifer had asked him stuff like that. It wasn't out of some weird sense of obligation. It had been an actual curiosity. The archangel had wanted to know _why_ , and so the human had given an answer. The answer wasn't always something that Lucifer liked or agreed with, but it was still an answer. Eventually, Lucifer had grown to accept those answers whether he liked them or not.

 _"I don't understand why you like this show so much. What makes it special?"_

 _"I like it, Lucifer. I grew up with it, and I just happen to still like it."_

 _"… I still don't get it."_

 _"It's only my opinion Lucifer. You don't have to like the show if you don't like it."_

It was the little things that made it hurt all the more. Lucifer cared about him – still did. And perhaps it was the want for a fairytale ending or the hope of a dreamer that made him wish that it could just go back to the way it was or at least become something that stopped reminding him of those times.

 _"I thought you said that you had the Mark ever since God— Chuck gave it to you at the beginning. Did it stay with you after you gave it to Cain? If so, wouldn't you still have it? Because then both Dean and Cain would've had it at the same time before Dean killed Cain, which would have meant there were multiple Marks all at once."_

 _"Give me a moment, you said a lot of words…"_

 _"Hey! … Well?"_

 _"Ah, I know I didn't really explain everything at the time, but the short answer should be no..."_

 _"Lucifer?"_

 _"Fine. Look, I don't have it anymore, so who cares? Don't worry about it."_

 _"… Okay."_

Even then, there was something more than what Lucifer had built with him, something buried in their relationship's foundations. It was a trust, faith in each other.

 _"Are you sure we should be doing this?"_

 _"If you don't tell, I won't tell"_

 _"Lucifer…"_

 _"Come on. It'll be fine."_

 _"I guess… Okay, but only because it's not technically illegal."_

 _"Whatever, kid. Let's go!"_

In a way, he was almost jealous of the boy, which then made him hysterical at the notion that he was jealous of himself. It was absurd – to think that what he had with his brother was anything more or less than what Lucifer had with Bennett. But… It was different. And sometimes, that killed Gabriel inside.

 _"The hardest part of life is acceptance. The things we want to change, to deny, to push away from us… The things that scare us, that make us run to the far corners of the Earth. You don't have to accept everything, certainly not right then and there. But when you finally realize it won't ever go away, and when you take it as it is, only then can you truly understand."_

 _"Uh… okay..?"_

 _"I try my hand at philosophy, and all I get is an 'okay'— seriously?"_

 _"Well, what am I supposed to say? I mean, nice job on the Hallmark card advice, but… eh?"_

 _"You're such a jerk, Lucifer."_

Gabriel wasn't sure why Lucifer never saw it in those six and a half months, or rather, he never understood why his brother chose to ignore it. Gabriel had the feeling Lucifer didn't know either. And the thing was, he was pretty sure neither of them wanted to know. The best part: the only one who would ever truly know would never tell.

"If I had taken the time to just stop for a minute…"

"Nothing would be different," the boy said in his silence. "Perhaps they would have known sooner or you would have been give their approval earlier, but you would eventually end up here."

Gabriel dragged his fingers through his hair. "It's not just that though."

"Regret is a person's greatest downfall. We cannot change what happened, only what will."

"Look at you, spouting philosophy at _me_ ," Gabriel scoffed with a cracked grin.

Bennett shrugged, his figure slowly coalescing into a 'solid' form within the space Gabriel cleared for them to have their conversation. "Well, one of us has to have decent advice to give."

"I screwed up."

"True," Bennett agreed, looking more and more real by the second. "But not in the ways you're thinking."

Gabriel shot him a glare.

The boy's form shook its head in response. "We knew this was always going to happen— deep down, even when I was just a kid and you were trying to act like everything was fine."

Gabriel didn't say anything, not that he would have needed to. Bennett already knew everything he could have said. Such was the balance of their psyches in Gabriel's headspace. The boy was more important, in so many ways.

"We both know it because there's always been something missing," Bennett continued, pausing to look upwards at the 'sky'.

Gabriel didn't have to follow Bennett's gaze to know what he was looking at. In fact, he was avoiding looking at them at all. They were like bright neon signs of his actions, though colored in a tinted view of the world. Seen through a clear glass, they were nothing but the idle remains of what was.

"They're still there, Gabriel. All of them. The moment you saw them, you knew this was coming, but you ignored them in favor of keeping what little piece of paradise you had— You got scared… You never did stop running."

Gabriel shook his head. "The one time I stopped and turned around, I got killed. Sure, Lucifer's sorry for it and I forgave him, but what that leaves behind doesn't go away."

"And yet I see that these bonds have flourished," Bennett said, gaze still pointed up. "You've been caring for them, even when all you could think about was letting them wither and fade."

"Just because I never wanted to give that up doesn't mean I won't settle—" Gabriel started, an old defensive anger rushing forward.

"You don't have to."

Bennett's form was gone before Gabriel even turned to look at him. The human boy had left as soon as he knew Gabriel had made up his mind. A soft breeze teased Gabriel's hair, the echo of a smile coming and going with its touch.

 **~o-O-o~**

Out of the corner of his eye, Dean watched Lucifer fiddle with the radio (again), and Dean let him. It was a long trip – almost a thirty-two hour drive without stops. Dean knew it was impossible for the wingless archangel to sit still for more than a couple hours (tops) even when Lucifer was deep into reading one of those books he usually had with him.

Besides that, Dean was pretty sure that this would be the first time Lucifer had been this far away from the Bunker without Gabriel or Castiel. Not that Dean wasn't confident in his skills to keep Lucifer safe until they all met back up sometime in the next few days, but Dean could tell that the separation made Lucifer… not quite nervous, but wary, maybe.

Which was completely understandable, but it was something the depowered archangel was going to have to get over eventually. (Starting by bringing him along on a possibly extremely dangerous case probably wasn't the best way to start, but it was a little late to go back now.)

After agreeing to meet Gabriel at the closest place to stay near the mountain, Dean had left with Lucifer to get a head start on the investigation while Sam was staying behind with Castiel to wait for Mary. They had all also agreed that if they didn't see or hear from each other by the end of the week, Gabriel would be checking in with each one of them.

Lucifer went through all of the available stations three more times before just turning the radio off with a unsatisfied huff. Dean couldn't blame him. There wasn't much to pick from where they were, currently in the absolute middle of nowhere. And Lucifer wouldn't choose any of the cassette tapes because of his newfound dislike of listening to anything that happened to go over ninety decibels for long periods of time – something about sensitive hearing. (Guess what managed to fall into that category: all of Dean's music currently in the car… at least, most if not all of the classics, but he doubted Lucifer would want to go on a scavenger hunt for which ones he could consistently listen to.)

This left them to sit in the relative silence of the car. Lucifer had given up on whatever book he'd been reading a little over an hour into the trip, and not even the games on his phone seemed to be keeping his attention for long. The contentment he was getting from looking out the window was slowly going down the drain, which meant Lucifer was getting very close to his last resort of passing the time.

Dean decided to break the ice first. "You've been to Washington before?"

Lucifer didn't answer immediately, but he also didn't give off the impression that he didn't want to talk about it. It another minute for Lucifer to glance over at Dean and say, "Once… with Gabriel."

Dean had figured Lucifer had been there with the kid since his sister and cousin was up in Washington State, but only once and not again since? He knew Gabriel went to visit Lucilia (and damn if that wasn't a name coincidence Dean could barely wrap his head around) every other month or so, though some of those visits he didn't let her see him. Dean would have thought Lucifer went with Gabriel at least one of those times last year when things had been going well.

"How'd you like Seattle?" he asked casually.

Lucifer shrugged, the movement awkward with the way he was leaning against the passenger door. "It was… cleaner than I'd expected. We went to one of the big outdoor markets. Gabriel liked it. I didn't really care for it that much, too many people. And there were a lot of dogs around the city and those rainbow flag things up in apartment windows…"

Dean nodded along as he got Lucifer to open up and go on and on about what was arguably one of the best parts of his life: his time with Gabriel Bennett. That kid was a game changer. Only Chuck probably knew what would have happened if that kid hadn't been around and willing to take on Lucifer. Even as things were right now, Dean was sure that they could have been significantly worse.

"… wondering through some tourist market area when Gabriel saw some shop and had us stop. I think he bought a trinket for Lucilia, but for a moment he freaked out about how he was going to pay for it," Lucifer was saying, a small smile that was barely visible from this angle forming at the memory. "You should've seen his face when I told him I have a card that taps into all the money that technically belongs to dear ol' Dad."

"So that's how you've paying for things? I guess that's one hell of a paper trail," Dean mused.

Lucifer let out a low chuckle. "Oh, if there were a way to follow it, maybe, and the best part is we barely put a dent into his 'account'."

Dean could hear the air quotes Lucifer was using and found himself smiling right along with the archangel. "Dude, how much did you even spend?" he asked, only partially joking.

Lucifer finally turned to look at him, eyebrow raised. "Do you really want to know?"

"Sure, give me a ballpark number," Dean prompted. As he did so, he activated his left blinker, navigating through an interchange to head west on I-80.

"Well, considering Gabriel made sure I paid for everyplace we stayed or item picked up along the way… half a million?" Lucifer threw the number out there like it was nothing, and Dean forced himself to keep his eyes on the road instead of taking a shot at Lucifer.

"Seriously? You spent five hundred grand in six months?" he asked incredulously, though he knew perfectly well that it was a reasonable number. By the time he, Sam, Mary and Cas had caught up to Gabriel and Lucifer on their 'extended vacation', they'd been through half of the continental states, and technically they would have only been paying for one person.

"Hey, you asked," Lucifer replied, going back to looking out the window; however, now he seemed to be invested in his conversation with Dean.

Dean tapped his thumbs on the steering wheel, thinking up his next question to keep Lucifer talking (and therefore at least somewhat entertained). "Wait, you said you barely put a dent into Chuck's account. How much does he even have?"

Lucifer made an "I don't know" noise. "That's something to ask him. You could probably buy the whole world a couple times over with it though, not that he cares to spend that much," he muttered.

Right, time for a new topic. "What about that book you're reading? New one?"

"Yeah, Gabriel's shoved some more sci-fi novels at me," Lucifer answered with a slight air of fond irritation. "The Time Machine was okay, didn't care much for the style or plot. I'm in the middle of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Weird transition, but it doesn't really matter what order I read books as long as they're not a series, right?"

"Hey, man, keep it up, and at this rate, you'll be as much of a bookworm as the kid," Dean pointed out.

Lucifer scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm taking a nap," he said like the pampered cat he was, basically ignoring Dean's comment and wiggling around until he was comfortable enough for his 'nap'. "Wake me up when we're close."

"Whatever you say, your highness."

 **~o-O-o~**

It took Lucilia less than a second to recognize the sound of Gabriel's wings. She quickly turned and hugged the breath out of him, squeezing for all it was worth.

"Lucy? What's wrong?"

Gabriel sounded worried, but he didn't need to be – at least, not for her. Because she was fine— Really, she was. To be honest, she thought that he needed to think about himself a bit more, especially when he had all of the selfish-selflessness of her big brother.

She pulled back just enough to look up into his amber eyes. "I just missed you, silly."

Lucilia watched as a series of emotions passed through those eyes, and he almost took her reply for the answer. "But that's not all…" he said in a questioning tone.

She shook her head, burying her face back into his chest and letting him hold her closer. "There was someone here to see you," she started slowly. "Mr. Crowley got mad when she saw me. He couldn't get her to leave, so they're at Mr. Redfield's now."

Gabriel went still at the news. "Did this other lady look kinda like Belle from that new Beauty and the Beast live-action remake?"

"Yeah, except she was in regular clothes and doesn't have the accent," Lucilia answered dutifully.

"That would be Kemuel." Gabriel let out a sigh, tapping his chin against Lucilia's hair. "She's, ah… an old friend."

Lucilia struggled to remember exactly what happened that night. "Well, she and Mr. Crowley were arguing on the porch, and she said something about needing to tell you something important and that it couldn't wait."

"They can wait another hour," Gabriel told her, and he stayed with her for two.

 **~o-O-o~**

Mick was _not_ nervous about being in the field for the first time in a long while. That being said, staying behind a desk for over a year had done him no favors. Ketch was far more suited to be on this case, even alone, but with him occupied not only by the task of killing the creature but also keeping Mick alive, Mick would have to try and stay out of Ketch's way if only to make the other man's job easier.

Which would almost make the hardest part of Mick's job be not being completely useless. ( _Some days he wondered if there had ever been a_ _ **point**_ _— Was this how it was always planned? If that was true, then why had He made them fight? It wasn't fair. All of the anger and worry and hate—_ )

But, to be fair, the case itself was rather straightforward. At first, however, Mick had almost dismissed the reports as something for the regular authorities to handle, but somewhere along the way he realized that two of the three victims had been hunters. This of course meant that the case would attract other American hunters – not that this little fact had occurred to him at the time. Which, most realistically, was the reason of how Mick happened to come across the patchwork Winchester family.

Ketch would not be happy. Then again, what the other man didn't know immediately wouldn't kill him.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm cutting it close, but I filled in my monthly quota. We're actually relatively close to the end, folks. I'd say about four to six more chapters before I completely wrap this up.**


End file.
